


Heart of Fire, Soul of Calamity

by Grand_Phoenix



Category: Naruto, Tales of Berseria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Feels, Male-Female Friendship, Moral Ambiguity, No Romance, OCs are prevalent and a supporting cast, What-If, Worldbuilding, bookworm!Naruto, different genin teams, even in these tags, hellions are everywhere, kenjutsu!Naruto, lots of philosophical and moral discussions, luciferian!Velvet, neutral!Kyuubi, no whitewashing of crimes against humanity here folks, scribe!Ino, the road to redemption and forgiveness is a well-worn path
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2018-12-29 20:57:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 68,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12093282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grand_Phoenix/pseuds/Grand_Phoenix
Summary: Naruto had always been fascinated by the tale of the Lord of Calamity, but he had never known she was still alive until the night he called upon her aid with the jutsu in the Scroll of Seals. How will this affect his dream of becoming Hokage? What new purpose will Velvet find, where sins are neither forgotten nor forgiven so easily?[on hiatus for now, for future revisions and retroactive expansion]





	1. Rebirth of Calamity: Part One

**Author's Note:**

> The notes from Fanfiction.net were too large to fit here, so I'm going to super-condense them as much as I can:
> 
> \- This was a concept I wanted to do for a while, mainly out of a desire to do my own Naruto/Berseria fic. A second reason is my becoming disenfranchised with the state of Naruto-centric epics, i.e. Naruto coming off as a stupidly godlikeAdonis with little to no buildup or pay-off where damn near everyone loves him when reality doesn't work like that, especially given how malevolence works in this story. A third reason is that if a third Zestiria/Berseria game is made, I can apply whatever knowledge that is made into this story as well.
> 
> \- I will be using Seelentau's timeline on the Naruto wikia as a reference point (so credit goes to them), but as it is an alternate universe some events have either happened sooner/later or did not occur at all. For clarity's sake - and because I don't see anything on there that shows a source that Kaguya being hailed the Rabbit Goddess in 983 BNB (Before Naruto's Birth), I'm setting the date of the God Tree's blooming at around 1000 BNB, and I will be using A.B. (After Birth [of Chakra] or, incorrectly called After Birth [of the Shinobi World] in-universe) as a label.
> 
> \- NO PAIRINGS. There won't be any genderswaps or "Clan Restoration Acts" present, either. They won't work for this story. On the other hand, you'll get plenty of friendships and Defrosting Lord of Calamity going on (although there certainly won't be any whitewashing; my girl-crush for Velvet is left at the door).
> 
> \- OCs do play a role in this story and are part of the supporting cast, because it'd be next to impossible to tell this tale without having some OCs being sprinkled here and there (and who would want to read canon events play out the same way over and over?). If they're not your cup of tea, then this might not be for you (although I won't blame anyone for being wary of OCs; I'll be the first to admit I'm cautious of them, as well).
> 
> \- Expect infrequent updates, as I have a full-time job and also work on other writings and things unrelated to it. That takes precedence over this fanfic at the end of the day.

1.  
Rebirth of Calamity: Part One

January 19, A.B. 1013

There was a hint of change in the air tonight, cool and sweet as the wind blew through Naruto, tantalizing him of all the untold promises waiting to be fulfilled. The weight of the large scroll thumping against his back made his heart quicken and brought to mind the possibilities of what he could learn, what he could show, and what would inevitably follow.

Even as the trees began to thin and the old shack loomed into view, he could taste the bitterness beneath the sweetness. Normally he wouldn't think to steal from someone, especially one as important and venerated as the Third Hokage. He should be learning as his peers did at the Academy—by the books, by hands-on experience, by practice, and the bitterness strengthened on top of the shame as he remembered the times the old man encouraged him to pay attention to his lessons and study, that there would always be time for fun and play.

Then he recalled the shock of the malformed clone he had made, the knot in his chest and in his throat at seeing the graduates with their families, flashing the leaf emblem engraved on their headbands.

He pushed the memories, and the upsurge of emotions accompanying them, back. He hopped off the branch and emerged from the woods into the clearing, landing in a way that almost caused him to fall with the scroll on top of him. Growling and grumbling, he removed it from the sling and clutched it to his chest; it was as large and thick as he was, as though he had his arms wrapped around a tree trunk. He picked a spot with plenty of moving space and plunked the scroll on the ground.

He looked toward the substation, its corrugated metal walls rusted over from years of dilapidation or lack of care. There was a transformer on the opposite side of where he stood and an array of power lines that plunged up and away into the darkness of the trees. He considered going in there and taking the time to read, bask in the quiet and soak it in, but in his rush to leave his house when night fell he had forgotten to bring his notes and materials.

That was alright. Experimenting would do just as well as writing, if not more.

His hands itched to tear the seal off the paper and unfurl it fully. He put one on top of the scroll to keep it steady and with the other he dug through the shuriken pouch tied at his hip, drew one out, and eased the tip around the wax. His grip was like iron, the muscles standing up on his arm. When the splotch hit the ground and he had pocketed the shuriken, he sat down and spread the scroll open.

His breath hitched. Here it was, all the jutsu and formulae and knowledge dating back as far back as the Warring States Period. Right there at his fingertips as he ran them across the yellowed parchment and traced every curve and slash of a character. Some were in the recent kanji. Others, through gleaning at memories of half-forgotten lessons, appeared to be a mixture of katakana and fragments of hiragana in alternating thin, broad strokes. They were signed and dated by whoever put brush to paper, they who may or may not be the creator of the jutsu, with notes written on the margin in tiny script to fit what little space was left on the divider.

He chewed his bottom lip. One technique, Master Mizuki had said. He just had to pick one technique from the scroll, learn it, and show it to Master Iruka. "That will get him to change his mind," he was told, and Master Mizuki had smiled encouragingly. "Then he'll let you graduate and become a shinobi."

Shinobi. The very thought of that word felt heavy on his tongue.

To be a shinobi was to be a soldier of the Village, a paragon to its people, a blade in the Hokage's hand.

To be a shinobi was to endure. He recalled from his earliest lessons in the Academy that they had the same kanji character.

His mind drifted, away from the scroll, away from the jutsu, into the far-flung past. One that, in hindsight, was not so distant and yet was like a dream, compounded by memories tinted jade around the edges. All those hushed words, all those silent stares that spoke more than the loudest jutsu, all the children that drew away when their parents warned them, scolded them, for getting too close to that brat, that troublemaker, that—

—Stop that—

He blinked. Then he blinked some more when he remembered where he was and looked down. The scroll was before him. The script between his fingers was old and, perhaps by some magical enchantment, still not yet faded by the ravages of time.

He pressed his lips together and studied the list. Most of the jutsu were beyond his capabilities, the kind only a jounin or Kage would be able to perform. Some had the potential to inflict great harm upon others and, more often not, inflict harm upon themselves. Sometimes they died, and he could imagine how painful, how silent, their final moments would be. There was even a jutsu that displaced the soul from the body and stuffed into an inanimate object that would be used to empower weapons and machinery. He shuddered and turned away from it.

He unrolled the scroll and had to scoot along the grass the further down he went. Here were diagrams and icons of designs ranging from the simple to the intricate, comprised of mathematical equations he tried to and (quite boldly but foolishly) failed to understand. There, too, were drawings of animals and creatures of abstract form. All of them either required the contracted to be of a specific clan or affiliation regardless of familial ties or had very strict, very time-consuming conditions that had to be done as soon as possible lest the pact be rescinded for someone more compatible and competent.

Naruto huffed and shook his head. These were far too advanced to attempt, and even if he succeeded in doing so there would be so much he'd be gambling on. His lessons, his training, his notes, his dreams….

I've got a long way to go before I meet the end of that road, he thought, and the sensation of that future was like a cold salve pressed to an open wound. Once he had graduated and was put into a genin cell, the stakes would be raised. Any mission—from a simple escort gone wrong to recon to assassination—would add mileage to his record and see him rise up the ranks. Any mission, too, would put an end to him.

Naruto frowned. No. No, that wasn't going to happen. How was he ever going to be Hokage if he died before achieving it? So what if it came to a point where he lost an arm or a leg? So what if his sight, one of a ninja's greatest tools, was deprived from him? Sure, it would be debilitating at first, but he would overcome them. Not 'would', he reminded himself. I'm going to. Come on, Naruto, remember your ninja way: You're not gonna run away and you're not gonna go back on your word. You got this. Believe it!

He cracked his knuckles, relished the way they went off like bug zappers striking every ill thought that came within inches of his focus. He couldn't help but smile; that was more like it. One look, however, made it falter when he saw how little he gleaned from the scroll. "How am I supposed to pick from these if half of them are going to kill me? I don't have all night. I don't even have all weekend!" He tipped his head back and judged the position of the stars and the moon. He sighed, smacked his lips, wrung his hands together. "There's still time. The team selections aren't 'til Monday, anyway." He punched one closed fist into an open hand and nodded. "Right. I'll just keep you out of sight until then. Or…at least until I can find a jutsu I can master. There has to be something in here!"

He looked at the sheet one last time, eyes slowly roaming and drinking in everything of interest, all the techniques that were too dangerous, too high-risk and beyond his capabilities to perform. Knowledge full of power, all the ideological, psychological, and ethical implications it would bring, but also to be used wisely, delicately. Or not at all, he heard the old man's voice say. Sometimes, the best decision is to not do anything at all.

That was what he was going to do: to store away what he could, and should, remember if he were to ever broaden his horizons in his career in the future. Naruto sighed, a moment's reluctance, and then brushed it away. There was work to be done, and he wasn't going to accomplish anything sitting here moping about it.

He readied to push himself onto his feet, and then stopped. Wait, did I read that right? He got down on his knees and opened the scroll until the text was unveiled in full. This section took up most of what had been spread out, written in script that was neat and clear yet bold and sharp but neither hurried nor illegible. He leaned forward and squinted.

The entry read as thus:

To Whom It May Concern:

This is an S-rank summoning jutsu that is forbidden to all but Kage-level ninja and jounin-level ninja (as must be ascertained, tested, qualified). It has been labeled a forbidden jutsu by a vote of majority by the Konoha Council and signed by the First Hokage on June 23, A.B. 957, effective immediately following the Battle at the Valley of the End, on June 21, A.B. 957.

The summon in question is not one of the beast domains but the therion-type hellion known as Velvet Crowe, the Lord of Calamity. She exudes large quantities of malevolence, capable of instantly turning humans and beasts into a variety of hellions determined by contributing psychological and environmental factors where her domain spreads. She has the ability to 'devour' souls – both white and black – upon slaying them with the claw hiding beneath the bandages taking the shape—and place—of her left arm as a primary source of sustenance. Her malevolence, when compounded on top of the general populace, has been recorded to have caused unseasonal and catastrophic disturbances in the weather.

We had first believed she had emerged from the western continent, when the spring was young and flourished, but upon further analysis from Inomaru's Mind Body Transmission Technique it is best to say Velvet is not from this world; she did not know about chakra or jutsu (and made mention the westerners were unaware of the concept, as well) until she started her rampage eastward and devoured anyone that had gotten in her way, presumably absorbing their knowledge. She had also expressed the assumption that ninja with beast summons and Kage of the Hidden Villages were powerful, holy priest-warriors called Exorcists and Shepherds, respectively. His sessions are still ongoing as I write this, but for now these are the only new pieces of information we have been able to glean from her memories and, when Mito has gotten through to her, bouts of conversation.

Beware: Although Kage-level and jounin-level ninja can perform this technique upon express permission, only the jinchuuriki, the vessel, of the Nine-Tailed Fox can coexist with the Lord of Calamity without fear of succumbing to hellionization. It is through that person that her malevolence is devoured by the Fox's chakra and contained inside the vessel so as to prevent it from spilling out from her domain—here in Konohagakure—and into the rest of the shinobi world. In exchange, Velvet will consume any malevolence exuding from the Fox and his container to circumvent hellionization via blood transference through summoning, also effective immediately upon completing the final hand seal.

I ask only that Velvet be summoned from her bonds in the event her abilities are absolutely required and all other options have been exhausted. The jinchuuriki must also be present either at the site of her cell, inside or within the vicinity of Konoha before attempting to do so. She may be called upon, regardless of distance, with the blood offering and hand seal sequence depicted below.

One final note: Cooperation is essential to fully maximizing the potential of the jinchuuriki, the Fox, and the Lord of Calamity. Although consuming malevolence prevents hellionization in the vessel, it can still affect the immediate area and agitate negative energies in individuals. With the aforementioned information above and the recent experiments Mito has taken to test the security of Velvet's domain and sustain her hunger, I do not believe an impartial imbalance will be enough to turn people. She believes that extreme emotions are guaranteed to change and warrant action. As to how quickly it would spread now compared to then at the time of Velvet's emergence, I cannot fathom to guess.

That is why I implore you, the reader, to take precaution where it concerns interacting with Velvet Crowe. I understand it will not be easy, given our history, but it is imperative to negotiate and compromise with her as the situation deems fit until the time comes when both parties can gain the other's trust if we are to understand and discover a way to cleanse the world of malevolence.

Senju Hashirama, First Hokage of Konohagakure

Naruto sat back, feeling the weight of it all come down on him like a rock sinking in water. He had heard of the Lord of Calamity—everyone in the Academy did, from Master Iruka and their teachers during their history lessons, of the battles that almost pushed humanity and the beast domains to extinction. She had the head of a wolf but the body of a woman wrapped in black that clung to her like smoke. With each step she took malevolence followed, and the land withered and the weather troubled and the hearts of men grew dark and hateful. Her left arm was not a human arm but a demon's arm flowing with an inner fire that would make even molten lava dim. A single touch from her hand and a man would be consumed by her curse and hellionize into a foul mockery of the beast summons; they would become no more and know only hunger, anger, bloodlust, and perverse joy in causing pain, and they followed her wherever she went. Sometimes they would not be turned but eaten, completely, so that nothing of the person that had just existed moments prior remained. Most civilians could not tell the difference between a regular human and a human who had hellionized, but the First Hokage and his most loyal ninja did and recognized the catastrophe that would unfold. Together with the four other newly formed nations and the beast domains, they clashed with the Lord of Calamity and her ilk in the fertile land that would come to be known as the Valley of the End. It was there Lord Hashirama put his sword through her heart and vanquished her forever, but her curse still remained, seeped into the lifeblood of the continent, perhaps even beyond the shinobi world where it is said the Far West remain shrouded in fog, and there did her hellions spread her mark and bring more of the innocent, the wayward, and the criminal under their sway and into their fold.

It was for those reasons that the First and Second Hokage revamped the Ninja Training Institution, and by the time it had formally become the Ninja Academy it included classes that offered basic purification lessons on how to purify water and the earth ripe with crop to sustain them on long-term missions. There were even rooms that provided meditation; this was in a building separate from the Academy, and on his way to class Naruto would hear the soft susurrations of the people inside as they performed zazen, seated on cushions with folded limbs and straight, stiff spines, of the priests leading them in prayer that would bring them closer to the teachings of the Sage and the mutual compliance of the beast domains (though they need not be wholly beholden to the more religious aspects). Master Iruka had once said the shinobi were given this knowledge, knowledge they had once kept in the privacy of hearth, home, and shrine in the days well before the Warring States Period, and experimented, hoping to meld it with their jutsu.

In the time since the Lord of Calamity's fall, the Spring of Devastation, the results of their labor resulted in chakra-enforced ofuda that were specially inked with the seals to wipe the malevolence clean. But it was a temporary reprieve, and it would not be long before Velvet's curse reclaimed the purified area once more.

How many years had it been since that battle? Naruto reached back in time, cleared the dust from bygone lessons. Fifty-six. This year would make it fifty-six years after that final battle. After the world changed.

Yet, here he was, sitting with a scroll he had stolen from the Hokage's office filled with jutsu too dangerous to perform and forbidden to be taught. Here he sat, in the middle of the night, reading up on a jutsu that would help him pass the graduation exam, only to find one that would awaken the Lord of Calamity from a slumber that was not death…and could bring about the end of civilization. It brought to mind a particular point Master Iruka made on the day he spoke of the Spring, an afterthought that sounded as though it had been rehearsed from the many times he made mention of it throughout his teaching career: "Yet legend has it that the Lord of Calamity did not die that day; rather, it is said Lord First sealed her away, somewhere in the Elemental Nations, with the hope that her curse would be contained and her malice removed from the world for all eternity."

And yet, here he was, skimming through the entry. Underneath it was a single bullet point, in handwriting more loose and superfluous:

With an offering of blood from the summoner, inscribe the kanji 'sameru' – 'to awake' – onto the ground, and then perform the following hand seal sequence: Boar – Dog – Bird – Monkey – Ram. Symbiosis will become effective immediately upon summoning and hunger has been sated post-awakening. Please refer to Lord Hokage and Lady Mito for more details. – Yamanaka Inomaru

This can't be real, Naruto thought, unable to tear his eyes away from the text. No way this is real. This has to be a fake jutsu. Someone had to have put it here to scare anyone from trying. Maybe this was a genjutsu Lord First had placed on the Scroll when he had finished documenting everything in it at the time, meant to trick the eyes and the chakra system of one who has touched it. But his chakra flow felt fine, unless that too was a genjutsu, and only his eyes remained affected. Thinning his lips, Naruto formed a hand seal. "Release!" he cried, calling on the word of unbinding. He blinked, but the text did not change. He rubbed his hand over the parchment, hoping to see the ink smudge and shimmer and reveal itself to be a less fatal jutsu, maybe even a big sign that claimed the joke was on him, someone must've known he would come and take the scroll for his own selfish purposes, and the thoughts brought an upsurge of frustration to pile on top of the curiosity and the fear.

The ink did not smudge. It was ingrained into the paper as the day it was written.

The hand seals to release the Lord of Calamity—If it's even her, he thought with unconvincing surety, it could still be fake—beckoned him to be learned, to be understood…to undo.

Naruto brushed his hand over the entry, skimmed through it. If it was fake, why include the warnings? Why include her history and abilities? Why mention the likes of Yamanaka Inomaru, whom he was sure his classmate, Ino, had never spoken of whenever the topic of families came up, and Uzumaki Mito, the last known Uzumaki recorded alive well after the massacre at Uzushio, before his time? Why take note of these experiments, all these details of sustenance and symbiosis?

Most of all, if the Lord of Calamity was the historical equivalent of the Devil, who knew only destruction and gluttony, why say there must be understanding between her and the host if there was a fighting chance to restore the world to what it once was?

—Ask—

— Ask the Hokage—

But Naruto shook his head. Real or fake, he decided, "I can't take that chance." Besides, Master Mizuki said it had to be a jutsu—any jutsu, really, and any jutsu will always be better than calling upon a world-ending hellion back to the land of the living and awake.

"Something else, then," he mumbled, and got back up on his feet to pace around the scroll. He tapped a finger on his chin, played with the end of his belt poking above his hip with the other, while he continued searching. "What to choose…what to choose…." He hummed and he harrumphed, dug the tips of his sandals into the earth and kicked off (but not too hard) so that blades of grass and dirt flew. He made one circuit, a second, a third.

"Ah!" He got down again and brought the paper up to his face. This was the Shadow Clone Jutsu, the first jutsu at the very top of the list. An A-rank jutsu that allowed the user to call up clones, just like the doppelganger spell students were taught in school. However, these shadow clones were not illusions but exact replicas of the original and could not be distinguished by the common ninja. It required a good dose of chakra…ah, but there was an additional jutsu below the summations: the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, and that demanded even more chakra than was considered safe for the body to handle.

"Why didn't I see this sooner?" he asked aloud. Then a sudden thought came to mind, one that made him lower the sheet. If he couldn't perform the Doppleganger Jutsu, then what hope did he have to perfect the Shadow Clone Jutsu or even its supplemental and derivative technique?

He looked at it again, reading it more slowly. His eyes grew to the size of hen's eggs. "Any experience the clone gains for the duration of their existence is passed onto the wielder either upon termination in combat or dispersion. This will also return the chakra that was imparted onto the clone and vice versa…Now that's what I'm talking about! I can pass with this." He smiled ruefully at the guilt that twanged against his rib cage like a drumstick sounding a single beat. "I'll pass, and then I'll forget I ever did this. I'll be one step closer to becoming Hokage."

It brought a sharp taste to his tongue, one akin to cranberries and bile, and it made him want to spit until his mouth became a parched desert. He looked away into the dark of the woods, in the direction of the Hokage's estate, but did not spit; he swallowed, throat clicking loudly, Adam apple's bobbing. You're in this deep already. What have you got to lose?

Naruto sighed, a harsh, huffing exhalation from his cheeks, and ran a hand through his hair. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Velvet Crowe's entry. He knew it was there; even if it spat malevolence and he put his back to it, he would be able to sense it. But darkness did not spew from the Scroll of Seals, the ink did not suddenly gain sentience and jump off the paper to wrest his hands and force them to form their seals, he didn't spontaneously combust nor did Velvet Crowe herself emerge, make the temperature drop to arctic levels and freeze his blood or rip his heart from his chest or devour him whole.

Nothing of the sort occurred, and history was but a memory.

A dream to be remembered.

This time Naruto did turn away from it, and he put all of his attention on the Shadow Clone Jutsu. "Right then. Let's get started. What are the hand seals…?"

\---

Iruka lay stretched out in bed, arms folded behind his head, staring up at the ceiling and the dormant, bladed fan. He had come home that evening to his apartment bathed in a single swath of dying sunlight spilling through the uncovered window, but it was bright enough to cast red curtains in his eyes and keep him alert for just a bit longer. The schoolwork had yet to be finished grading, his plans still organized and finalized, messages to be written and sent via hawk to the Hokage regarding this year's genin cells to discuss over the weekend.

So once he had relaxed, he threw himself into his work. The evening segued into night as a silent, migratory creature, and the fall of the last grade book being shut signaled the end of another day's job well done (for better or worse; some were easier than others). With food and drink settled in his stomach and his materials compiled and set off to the side, Iruka turned off the lights, removed his vest and shoes, and turned to bed, where sleep would take him.

Sleep did not come—not entirely, for he dozed off and on here and there. He had woken up and glanced at the clock—not five minutes earlier, but when one is ignorant of time it is certain to feel like an eternity—and saw it was four in the morning. Groaning, he lifted his numbed arm away to rub his eyes and slide his hand down the rest of his face. Dawn was still a couple hours off and he needed the rest, but both mind and body were on full alert. This was going to be another one of those days where he would have to hit up that old coffee maker again or go out and purchase some teabags during lunch break; that little part of the pantry was beginning to look quite bare.

He sighed, folded his arm to its previous position, and let his thoughts wander. Over the past few weeks he and the other Academy teachers were preparing their students for the graduation ceremony: a rite of passage from greenhorn to soldier, a gateway into adulthood, and, ultimately, a catapult into the ninja world. It would be there they would learn the cold, harsh truths of reality, be faced with their consequences their actions would cause no matter how good or ill they were, see firsthand how far the depths of humanity's cruelty ran. How weak some would be and how easily they would fall into corruption.

They would learn how to deal with those people who could not be talked down or be subdued. They would see with their own eyes how steep in malevolence the land was and how it warped the weak of heart, the innocent and the foolish and the condemned into hellions. They would know how impossible it would be to save them. He could only cling onto the faint thread of hope that their jounin masters, whichever Lord Hokage deemed fit for service, would help them come to terms with that: one hand to keep them on the path and face the darkness ahead and another to stop them from straying away from it and succumbing to the curse.

The thought that his students, all of them equally dear to him as much as they frustrated him to no end and made him wish someone would take them away from him, would lose themselves to their emotions and hellionize seized at his heart with the force of an iron clamp. Just the thought that they would become something so far removed from human reason and civility, a mindless beast akin to a rabid dog, caused his stomach to roll a single, sick wave. Just the thought that someone would accumulate so much malevolence and become more than a hellion, be something that wasn't mindless but smart and terrible…there was a chance he or she would—

No! he said, and the word was a loud, strong echo that blew those visions to dust with the force of winds. No, it can't happen. The world had suffered enough under the Lord of Calamity. If not for her, then perhaps it would be a slightly better place, but mankind would continue the cycle of hatred unabated, never learning, never wavering in their conviction. His students would learn—they will learn, and so, too, would the jounin masters. If it could not be avoided, then they would be prepared. All for that moment, and many more sure to come.

We gave them everything we could give them. It is all we can do. The rest is up to them.

He yawned hugely and blinked owlishly at the moonlight creeping into the bedroom. It was almost as if the moon itself wanted to banish those fears and doubts, and such a passing fancy lifted that weight and made him glad. The day was much too early for somber musings, so he redirected those to that of his students. He had drawn up a second draft of cells they would be put in and suggestions for potential jounin masters to lead them based on the feedback Lord Third had provided him in his reply via messenger hawk. He had sent his own back prior to nightfall with a word that, if Lord Third should have time, he would come in before the weekend turned out to discuss, rearrange, and finalize their selections with the rest of the instructors. This was the year where the majority of the class comprised of clan heirs who would one day capitalize on their training and inherit the power and the legacy that stretched back centuries. Maybe one of them would even grow up to become Hokage.

It made his chest swell with pride, but it deflated just as soon as it had risen. That was Naruto's dream, wasn't it? To be Hokage…no, not just that. He did not outright say it, but to become Hokage meant earning the respect and approval of the Village, to earn their trust and prove to them he was not some brat who liked to pull pranks when the mood struck him; and that in itself was an odd thing, because in the past four years he had gone from being a nuisance causing chaos in the streets and in the upper ninja ranks to…someone who had gotten quieter. Not a whole lot, there were still moments, but they were not as loud as before, and he become more…thoughtful, more serious about what he wanted to do with his life. He had picked up the slack in his lessons, and while he still couldn't quite grasp vocalized explanations on the onset, he had taken pains to write notes. He would read them to himself, pantomime the hand seals required for basic jutsu, and apply them to the day's classes. His grades were not stellar, but since then Iruka had seen a positive change in them; no longer dead last of his peers but nowhere close to being up there with the likes of Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. In the end, Naruto had settled right in the middle of the pack—far from the best but far from the worst.

Which made it all the more jarring that he didn't pass: he scored very well in history but was decent in every other subject on the written exam, he was quick on the uptake with the genjutsu portion and just made it on record time in taijutsu and weapons target break tests, and performed the Transformation and Body Switch Jutsu with relative ease (if with somewhat of a delay on the latter). The clone jutsu, on the other hand…maybe he had put too much chakra into it, maybe not enough. Maybe he did have the right amount, but when it was conjured it was a pale, ill thing, glass-eyed, transparent to look at, and scarcely breathing; even the skin that mimicked its owner was like soft mold warmed by the sun. Both he and Naruto were stunned, as were his classmates who had taken notice of his improvements and quietly watched from afar, and it was Mizuki who broke the stupor. It was Mizuki who suggested to give Naruto a pass on the clone, since he had created one (and not the recommended three), malformed as it was.

Iruka had only pursed his lips and tried not to shake his head as he marked down the grade on the clipboard. Then they had called for a recess and let the class know the results by the final bell.

He sighed. It pained him to see Naruto's face go from nervous, barely restrained anticipation to confusion and then to shell-shocked realization when all the graduates had been announced and their forehead protectors given. Only when school had been let out and families were congratulating their children did he see the boy on the swing—his shoulders slumped, his hands tight on the rope, the dejection in his eyes that the shadows of the tree leaves tried to hide but could not quite be fully submerged.

He had wanted to go up to him then and there and tell him he did the best he could, wanted to tell him that even though he wasn't top of the class or his reaction times with jutsu weren't instantaneous he had taken pains to realize his errors and rectify them the best he could. He could use the time he had now to enroll in his class again or in another instructor's when winter break was over and further improve himself. He wanted to say he was still young, there was no rush to graduate because there were students in their late teens who were held back or took their time with their education before they took the exam. Lord Fourth was twenty-three when he was made Hokage; if Naruto was careful on his missions and played his cards right, he too would become Hokage, but only if he felt he was up for the task.

He had said nothing and only watched him get off the swing and scurry away from the crowd and their whispers, their judgmental stares. They were glad the demon did not pass. He remained, but at least he was not one of them now.

Lord Third, whom he had sensed come gliding in like the title he bore and stood as a silent sentinel, asked for him to walk him home. Knowing what was going to be said, Iruka had complied, gathered his materials, and together made their journey.

I know it was not an easy decision. You did what was right for the boy, said the old man, and he paused to lift his mouth from his pipe to blow a smoke ring. He has potential, and with time he will grow, nurture the power he has inside him—what he contains within—and become a fine ninja. It will hurt awhile, but he's not one to let it get to him for long. He will endure. Then he frowned, and Iruka saw as he did the people around them, husbands and wives and sons and daughters and grandparents, giving them a wide, respectful birth, saw the acknowledgements here and there before they attended their own. They were bright and warm as the sun bearing down on their backs, tall and straight and bent as mountains. They were happy, and their happiness reopened the scar in his heart and flooded it with aching longing.

We can only do so much for our young, especially one such as Naruto, he continued, and looked at Iruka. He nodded soberly. I understand how you feel, Iruka. Growing up without a parent's love…try as we might, we cannot replace what has been lost to us. Our love is but a salve can ease, but curing…I do not think it will ever be enough. He will be hated because of the incident. It is why he had pulled pranks in the past, for negative attention is better than no attention at all. But he has changed, Iruka, slowly but surely. You've seen it, I've seen it; it wouldn't surprise me if his classmates are beginning to see that he is not the ticking time bomb the Village has made him out to be. It will be a long process. It will still hurt, years from now, when they truly see him for who he is. Lord Third took a moment to puff on the pipe. I can only hope that our guidance, and those few who care for him, will give him the strength he needs. There are enough shadows in this world already.

Yes, there are, Iruka thought. People still fought even though the Third Shinobi World War had ended nigh fourteen years ago. Nations still sent soldiers out into the field to dispose of rival ninja making the futile attempt to throw the peace of the political climate into upheaval. Even here at home, there was a quiet tension between ninja and civilian, each convinced that the other would bring about malevolence and be the catalyst for Konoha's potential downfall. It was an underlying current, something that almost went unspoken even though public approval toward Lord Third's reign was overall positive, but Iruka had heard the rumblings. Everyone did; the average man believed the ninja to be a disaster waiting to happen that they would be unprepared for, while the ninja believed the average man believed themselves to be immune to the curse and were ignorant of the fact that they were just as susceptible. Both voices were few and far between, but they could not be silenced. Their points were valid.

This world was dark and terrible as it was bright and beautiful, but it seemed as though the Land of Fire was condemned to cast the darkest shadows. He couldn't be sure if it was because he was waxing poetic or being darkly comedic due to its name, but since the founding of the Village he had noticed the number of tumultuous events that rocked the country. Uchiha Itachi's betrayal and the mass exodus of those survivors from Konoha after the failed coup; the Sannin Orochimaru's expulsion for crimes against humanity; Uchiha Madara's defection following the Lord of Calamity's defeat at the Valley of the End. During those times, he heard the streets thrive with gossip, claiming that though she had died the echoes of her curse lived on, wriggling their way into their minds and compelling them to sow discord among the populace. Most disagreed, saying these acts they had brought upon themselves, they were slighted and forsook their Village and nation for their own gain. Regardless of these opinions, all agreed on one thing: they accepted her curse and made it their own, a source of power only the truly depraved tampered with.

By the time Lord Fourth was mantled Hokage, the title of Lord of Calamity was retroactively applied to men such as these: they who had caused chaos for their fellow countrymen and were so steeped in malevolence they had hellionized (and if they had not been exuding malevolence, then they had succumbed to it long ago). Soon it was applied to rogue ninja of both genders, and on days when Iruka had taken the day off or went about his break, he had heard tell the title was used outside the Land of Fire; perhaps, they said, the lands to the Far West used this term as well, for it was there legend states the True Lord made her emergence.

None of those people affected Iruka in any way, other than the usual shock and disgust that accompanied news of their deeds. No, they had done nothing to him. Although he would always acknowledge history for what it was, there was only one person—one thing—he would call Lord of Calamity: the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.

Yes, it had to be, just as the other nations referred to the other tailed beasts as such, although many believed in the incredulous theory that they were constructs of malevolence in spite of overwhelming evidence pointing to the contrary. Its appearance was abrupt and horrific, the killing intent coming off of its body in waves that would floor the most stalwart shinobi and turn them into a piddling, gibbering mess. The swing of a single tail razed mountains and turned rivers into floods. Its claws tore through buildings like grass to a scythe and from its open mouth filled with teeth the size of glaciers fired poured in twisting gouts that incinerated anything it touched.

He could still remember it clearly, as though it happened today. How it towered above the Village, its tails flailing in the air, its head tossed back in a hateful roar that froze his blood and squeezed what breath remained in his body as he was being hauled away from his parents, who had faded from view and from his life forever. The stars were blotted out by the smoke, the night turned to day by the light of jutsu being flung from the ground forces, the rustic mumble of mundane conversation warped into cries of horror and grief and rage—

"IRUKA!"

He gasped, eyes flying open at the pounding on his door. He glanced at his alarm clock. Ten minutes had passed.

"WAKE UP, IRUKA!"

Mizuki?! Iruka rolled out of bed, stamping his feet to work the circulation back into them. He opened the door and saw his coworker, panting and looking disheveled as he had not seen him in years. "What's wrong?"

"You need to come with me right now," he said. "Lord Third's house has been broken into. He says Naruto has stolen the Scroll of Seals!"

His stomach dropped. "What?!" It was meant to be an exclamation, but it came out as a tight intake of breath. "Naruto took it?"

"I know it sounds hard to believe, but it's true. I was on patrol when I heard all the commotion. The traps on the window weren't reset properly, the scrolls in his cabinets were put back as though in a rush—"

"Naruto wouldn't do such a thing!" Iruka cut in, and, scrambling to find the right words, "What about the security footage? Surely there's something—"

"That's the problem: all of the cameras on the route he's taken have been destroyed, as well as the tapes. There's shrapnel everywhere; the police are checking to see if it's from them or any of the weapons he used to dispose of them."

"Then how can you prove it was him and not a mole?"

"Do you know any moles that wear orange?" Mizuki asked, and from his flak jacket he produced a familiar scrap of cloth. There was a large tear in the middle, as though a kunai had gone through it. "This was found in the same room as the Scroll was stored in. Lord Third thinks Naruto may have been in a hurry to get out and…well." He shrugged, trailing off.

Iruka glanced at the scrap with haunted eyes, then looked up at Mizuki, expecting him to drop the cool, flat plain of his face to change. It didn't, and Iruka shook his head. "But…why? Why would he…?"

"I think we both know the reasons for that," Mizuki said quietly. "Now come on. Lord Third's assembling a search party and he specifically asked for you to join in. You know him better than anyone else. If you can find and stall him, we can nab him and bring him in."

"For what? Do you really believe Naruto would take the Scroll for his own or, or, I don't know, pull up stakes and leave Konoha—"

"He might've let himself wide open, but he knows what he's doing. There are dangerous things in that scroll, Iruka, things he could learn and take from, and if he should do that then—"

"He won't, because I'll kick his ass before he gets to form the first hand seal!" Iruka declared. "After everything he's been through, after everything I've put him through! I won't give him a chance to speak until I'm finished with him!"

"That's if we find him and if Lord Hokage doesn't beat you to it. Now we really ought to be going, Iruka. You can tell me the rest on the way there. We're wasting time!" Then he spun on his heel and vaulted over the railing. Seeing him fall like that so smoothly and so suddenly broke Iruka from his reverie. He ran back inside, threw on his gear, and all but flung himself off the roof.

When he had cleared the lower levels and hit the street, Mizuki was waiting for him, appraising him impatiently. His stance relaxed as Iruka came into view but his features were still hard and grim. He tilted his head over his shoulder, indicating their destination, and led the way.

\---

When they had arrived, a crowd had already formed, mostly men with a scattering of women among them. Even before they had rounded the street corner, Iruka could hear the rumbling of their outrage like a bee hive being shaken to inevitable disaster of buzzing and stinging mayhem.

"Once a troublemaker, always a troublemaker!" a ninja at the front cried. "People like that never change!"

"Yeah! Just because he stopped for a bit doesn't mean it's over!" said another.

"The fact that the Scroll's in his hands means he's up to no good, Lord Hokage!" a woman stated. "If he takes it out of the Village, all of those secrets might be exposed!"

"He's gone too far! He has to be stopped!"

The group loudly approved their agreement. The Hokage raised a hand for silence, to which they did and waited expectantly. "Aye, your concerns are not unfounded," he began. "All of you know more or less of what the Scroll contains and why Lord First had to seal it away. However, time is still on our side: the trail is still warm. Naruto remains in the Village; whether he is hiding or on the run, I do not know. I give you but a single order: find Naruto, retrieve the Scroll, and bring him back here. You are dismissed!"

"SIR YES SIR!" They dispersed to the winds and were dark shapes flitting through the night.

"Let's go, Iruka!" Mizuki called, and broke into a run back in the direction they had come. Yet when he didn't hear the accompanied footsteps, he stopped. "Iruka?"

He was standing before the Hokage, fists at his sides in knuckle-white grips. The old man, with hands folded behind his back and his posture straight, turned to his subordinate and regarded him with that same, cool calm he had given to the search party. "Iruka," he prompted kindly. "I'm glad you came."

Iruka nodded tightly. "Yes sir." He looked past his leader, studying the two-story house. It appeared dark, but off to the side he could just make out the pool of light on the ground around the corner to his right. Brambles stuck out of the bushes like accusatory fingers, and in between them there was the telltale shimmer of crisscrossed wire. They had been snapped, and there was another strip of orange cloth dangling from a stem. The ball in his stomach got heavier. "So it's true then."

The Hokage hummed, also looking over that way.

"What about the shrapnel? Are they from the cameras? Kunai? Shuriken?"

"Both," he said, "but I'm afraid the pieces are too small for the police to collect and process as evidence. It would not be worth showing you; what cameras were touched you wouldn't have known at first glance there were any to begin with."

"But Naruto doesn't have that kind of strength! Does he?"

The Hokage said nothing. He continued to stare at the bramble bushes.

"Iruka, come on!" Mizuki called, and Iruka turned to see him waving.

"Go now, Iruka," said the old man. "Every minute that passes increases the chance of Naruto slipping outside the Village…or worse, misuse the Scroll."

Iruka sighed. "Yes sir. I understand." He made to go, but paused. "Lord Hokage?" The man raised a brow. "What will you do to Naruto when we find him?"

The grandfatherly persona fell away, replaced by a detached, calculating soldier. It gave Iruka the idea that through those eyes he could see the world through a lens clearer and sharper than any Sharingan could but also dimmed that same world around him to a fine point where nothing else existed. The sight caused a chill to run up his spine. "I will think of a fitting punishment for him," he said.

A moment later, once he had put some distance away from the man to relax and push his heart back down his throat, Iruka met Mizuki at a four-way intersection. Between the fingers of one hand were smoke bombs, and all but one he clipped to his belt; the other he stowed away into the folds of his sleeve. "About time!" he groused.

"I'm sorry," he said through a mouth much too dry. "I just…I wanted to make sure."

"And nothing to see, right?" Mizuki harrumphed. "Yeah. He said the exact same things to me when I asked. He let me look, though. Real mess in there. Gotta say one thing: Naruto's got some pretty big balls to pull off what he did."

"Not for long," Iruka muttered. "How do you want to do this? You go one way, I go the other?"

"Yeah…but not here. Most of those guys back there are looking for payback, and none of 'em are going to wait for us to catch up. They're not thinking straight, so they're goin' to search every nook and cranny they can find if it means Naruto's hiding in one of 'em." He stretched out an arm in front of him and rolled it in high, limbering circles, warming the muscles. "I'm not sure who I'd hate to be more: the kid if they catch him…or the police if those guys get a little too in touch with their dark sides..."

"It won't happen," said Iruka. "Everyone's trained in stopping the hellionization process from completing."

"That's right…that is, when we know for sure we can reach them in time. That's why Lord Hokage mixed some of the policy force in with the search party. Because if something happens to one of the guys and they're not there to beat some sense back into them, we're going to have more than just a situation on our hands."

"What about us?"

Mizuki laughed. "You know right from wrong, Iruka! Trust me, with that kind of conviction, you won't hellionize."

"And you?"

"I was getting to that. You and I split up: I'll hit up the east quadrant, you hit up the west. I noticed some of them doing the same thing, so if we should happen on them somewhere in town we'll let them know the one place they haven't tried searching." He gave Iruka a knowing look.

He realized right away. "Of course…the forest!"

"Yep. If we can't get a bead on him in the Village, then the last place to check will be the outskirts. So we catch up to them and let 'em know we're going to block off the forest on both points so we can flank him, but we'll need backup just in case one of us goes a little loopy. The police—and Lord Hokage—can't hold it against us if the curse makes us do something out of turn."

"That doesn't excuse what we do before we're influenced," said Iruka.

Mizuki heaved a world-weary sigh. "Let's save the psychoanalysis for another time and get that kid back in one piece before the others beat us to him. Here," He reached into a pocket and tossed something small and black at Iruka. He caught it, looked at it; it was a wireless radio earpiece. "If you find him, give me a call. Or I will, and one of us will pass it on to the others; the police should be hooked up if they aren't. If anything, one team can try to distract Naruto long enough for the other to arrive and pin him down. Sound like a plan?"

"Better than nothing," Iruka said, and dropped his hands when he deemed the earpiece snug enough to not fall from its place. "Remind me why you're not in the force again?"

Mizuki smirked. "Because I'd rather people-watch behind classroom podiums and water coolers than at a desk doing paperwork and waiting to be called on for a case. I get more bang for my buck that way."

"You can get just as much if you were an officer!"

Mizuki mumbled dissent and shrugged. He waved him off. "Go on. Get." He took off down the road and then made several leaps up a building, where he landed on the roof and disappeared from view.

Iruka took one last look at the intersection and its alleys tucked away in the corners, its homes and the darkness that resided in those halls at this hour (but certainly had to have heard the commotion going on and kept quiet about it). He looked beyond it, wondering why Naruto had decided the conclusion he had come to was, in his mind, the right choice.

He pushed those thoughts away and ran west.


	2. Rebirth of Calamity: Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parts of the action scenes in the middle and at the end were inspired and influenced by the Kickstarter trailer for the upcoming pixel action/horror game Blasphemous. Every time I read that last section I break out in schoolgirl giggles and chills because I *wrote that* (duh!), and that's just about one way to establish THE character moment out the door.

2.  
Rebirth of Calamity: Part Two

Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage of Konoha, padded down the hall of the residence he had called home for the past forty-six years.

The period from which he had been suddenly handed the mantle from his predecessor, Lord Senju Tobirama, was a chaotic time, when the Elemental Nations were dealing blow after blow to their neighbor and it seemed as though the fighting would never stop until everyone on the continent, soldier and civilian, was dead. It had been a long, hard road since then, and this house knew it well, from the insulation in the walls to the foundation beneath the floor. It had known the harried succession into office upon the return of that ill-fated mission where Lord Second gave his life to protect the squad Hiruzen had been part of, listened in on the conversations he had with the three children who would grow to become the Legendary Ninja, bore witnessed to the intimacy he shared with Biwako and the comings and goings of their own brood filling into their bodies and taking their leave to strike their own path. It became an old friend and his worst enemy, overseeing every minor and major mental obstacle that came packaged with securing and allocating funds for personal projects, assigning ninja to missions that threatened the Village's security, and—the greatest, weightiest sin of all—sign the document that would formally announce the declaration of war.

Yes, this old house had seen a lot. There were instances of love and hate for it, and in the twilight of his years he had come to make peace with himself and the necessary evils that sometimes required and even forced him to either stay his hand or play it. A house was a house, of course; it had retained the histories of the men who had come before him, it was the keeper of his history today, and it would do the same for those who would come after him when his body was given unto the earth and only the dust of his bones remained to flourish in the shadows of Konoha's roots.

Tonight, this old house would play host to a gamble.

He had watched Iruka give chase after Mizuki, and after the young man had rounded the corner he waited a moment, contenting himself to glancing surreptitiously at the broken glass glittering in the glow of the lamp from its place in his bedroom. Then he had moved on between gazing at the stars and catching snatches of the police out of his eye, and that was when he had sensed the chief of police, a broad-shouldered, dark-haired man named Takuma, approaching him from behind. "Chief Tekkou," he said. "Was anything else taken from the premises?"

"No, sir. Only the Scroll of Seals is missing. Some of your stuff has been moved around, but we don't have reason to believe Uzumaki pilfered any other valuables and materials."

Hiruzen hummed.

"However," Takuma added, and he paused upon seeing the Hokage's eyes light up. He tried not to fidget. "We've noticed the air quality in parts of the house where Uzumaki broke into and traveled appeared to have gotten somewhat," he reached for a word, "polluted." He fell silent.

Hiruzen straightened up. "Go on."

"It's nothing serious; we managed to get a reading on the levels and deemed them acceptable and safe to go back inside. The vapors should taper off within the hour. Although," and he stopped again.

"Although?" Hiruzen hazarded gently.

Takuma cast swift, minute glances to his left and to his right; the men were going about their work, removing the yellow tape blocking off the entrance to the house. Others were speaking to one or two ninja who had heard the commotion and, judging from how relaxed both parties were, persuaded them that everything was all right, Lord Hokage was not in any danger, they have everything under control but the chunin were welcome to search for Uzumaki Naruto and keep a lookout for him. This pair retreated into the dark, away from the house and into the Village. He stepped closer and leaned in. "There's something…foul…about that malevolence, Lord Hokage," he said in a hushed tone. "It felt…cold. Hateful. It wasn't a strong feeling, but some of my men were forced to fall back the closer we got to your bedroom. They said it reminded them of"—now he really did fidget—"of the Lord of Calamity."

Hiruzen chewed on the inside of his cheek, turning it over. "Which one?"

"The first one, Lord Hokage. The True Lord of Calamity."

He nodded understanding, drawings his hands away from the folds of his sleeves to clasp them behind his back. "Interesting. What else?"

"Other than the walls sustaining some warping on the surface, but there's nothing that indicates the damage goes deeper than that." He blew a stream of breath from between his cheeks. "A shame we couldn't compile any of the evidence."

"At this point, the evidence doesn't matter anymore," said Hiruzen. "All that matters is that we capture Naruto and secure the Scroll of Seals. Both in one piece, I should say," he added with blunt emphasis, and leveled an eye at the officers. Half of them had gone with the patrol and split off in two separate groups while the rest stayed behind to wrap up business at the residence. These ninja were now turned away, facing the Village; some of them were idly fingering the weapon pouches cinched to their belts. "Chief Tekkou, I have a mission for you."

"Sir?" The police chief stood to attention at the authority in his voice.

Hiruzen beckoned him even closer. When he did, he bent to his ear. "Gather your men together. Take these." He bit his thumb, reached inside his robe, and pressed it against the paper seal he had strapped to his chest. He caught the scrolls and showed them to Takuma. On both of them was the kanji for suppression. "One for yourself, and another to a person you trust and can guarantee won't hellionize."

"Lord Hokage, do you really think—"

"Yes, I do think so, and I'd rather it'd be you who does this. As much as I would like to be out there with you, I must stay here and monitor the Village for any signs of Naruto lest I, too, succumb to the madness. If anyone should undergo hellionization, I would prefer to have them be curbed and quarantined before they get out of control. We cannot have malevolence spreading before it starts; the standard issued ofuda will not be enough, hence why I am giving you these scrolls."

Takuma glanced down at them, rolling one in the cusp of his palm. "You mean these aren't meant to purify malevolence in people? I thought I had heard rumors of ofuda that could cleanse humans and beast summons being in production."

Hiruzen shook his head sadly. "No, Chief Tekkou, I'm afraid that while they are being made those kinds of seals have not been perfected. I'm certain you are aware of the high failure rate they have yielded while being used on the field. These scrolls were crafted by the Anti-Malevolence Department and will only serve to bind the target in place. You'll only have a few seconds at best to neutralize them so the curse cannot run its course."

"I see. I, and whomever I choose to bear the scroll, will only use them should the situation call for it." He clipped one to his flak jacket and held the other tight in his fist.

"Yes, you do that. Also," and he lowered his voice, "if they should hellionize completely…you know what to do."

A dark cloud settled in his furrowed brow and set his jaw in a vice, but it had come and gone as a swift, passing storm. Tekkou Takuma steeled himself and bowed low. "I understand, Lord Hokage. Your will be done."

"I will repay you in short time, regardless of the potential implications. Let your men know to tune in to my frequency on the radio in case I am able to locate and pinpoint Naruto's location. Make haste!"

That had been a few minutes ago. The house was quiet now, steeped in a thick yet fragile silence. Hiruzen sidestepped the shards of kunai (or shuriken) and security camera, remembering to sweep them up when the commotion subsided. He dragged a hand across a warped indentation of the wall as he walked by, noticing the way they rose and fell like a plain of rolling hills until the panels finally leveled out. A tiny plume of black-brown smoke, akin to some crude oil, flexed and coiled about his fingertips and into the air before dissipating. He could almost taste the anger, the scorn, flashing through his mind.

The ghost of memories and buried misanthropy. Once again, the sensation of failure and tardiness weighed upon his shoulders.

That, too, passed, just as the opportunity for redemption passed a long time ago. He knew what needed to be done. It was simply a matter of when, not if.

As he turned to enter his bedroom, the shadows adjutant to the end of the corridor shifted, spilled away, and came into the meager light, revealing the form of a man: tall, almost gangly, lean of muscle, with short brown hair spiking up on the back of his head. He wore the grey chassis and form-fitting black uniform signifying his station of an ANBU operative. The plain, caricatural black bear mask was bent to the floor as he collapsed smoothly onto one knee. "Lord Hokage," he said, and waited.

Hiruzen nodded. "Speak, Kuroguma."

"I bring you fresh tidings on Operation Stormchaser. They are…related to the current predicament."

He arched an eyebrow. "Oh? Do tell."

Kuroguma did.

The weight lessened but did not fall entirely off. "Yes…I had my suspicions, but I did not wish to act upon them with due negligence. That was why I had the Scroll in here and not locked away as per protocol. What else?"

Kuroguma continued.

He clenched his teeth, biting back frustration. "That long ago…and they've been waiting this whole time." Not just for the opportunity to obtain the Scroll, but to also… He could feel the beginnings of a triphammer headache rising from the depths of his thoughts like some underwater creature.

Kuroguma nodded. "What are your orders, sir?"

He considered his options, mind racing…and realized there weren't any other than the one he hoped to never fall back on. He couldn't, not with how much more dangerous the situation had just become and how unpredictable the results would be. What he did know, if he should pursue it, would be how long it would take before word reached the other nations, how much stronger—or much more vulnerable—Konoha's defenses would become and what it would mean for the rest of the country.

Once again, he thought absurdly of this old house, and tried to tell himself this decision was for the greater good.

He knew only a sneaking dread, but there was the faint, silver lining of childlike, primal curiosity of all the variables, all the possibilities, all the hardships and determination and heartache that would come from it. He quashed it down. "Kuroguma," he said. "Go back to Point Zero and alert the Guard. I'm issuing a Code White."

Kuroguma grew still. A beat of silence, then, "Shall I send for Master Inoichi as well?"

"Do so, as quickly as you can. Have him send out the transmission to all active and off-duty ANBU to be on standby and wait for further orders throughout the Village. Once that has been done, I want you to rejoin the Guard and monitor the Point. Use only the channel frequencies and my own if you have to; otherwise, maintain radio silence. Leave nothing to chance."

"By your will, Lord Hokage," said Kuroguma, and Hiruzen feigned turning to enter the bedroom when he added, "I pray all goes well and does not go in the direction we fear it will. It would give Lord Danzo one more reason to oppose you."

Hiruzen let the ghost of a frown show. "I have seen the things he claims are so unnecessary and wasteful, Kuroguma. All Hokage have, and while he makes a point that emotions may be a hindrance in certain aspects, he forgets that they are the foundation of human nature. It is what separates us from the monsters, but we must use our discretion as we see fit; always remember that. Now make haste."

"Yes, sir," and Kuroguma slipped back into the shadows, where a slight breeze and the scent of pine leaves signaled his departure.

Hiruzen stared at the spot the ANBU had occupied, then made his way inside the bedroom. The square light switch made a solid thunk! as he flipped it up, and blessed electricity threw everything into focus. His bed was on his left against the wall and low to the ground. Across from it by the window were his dresser and cupboards filled to the brim with scrolls of various sizes, taking up not only that particular wall but also the wall he glided past—floating shelves, bookshelves, four-to-eight cube cases with sliding doors. One of them, a tall cabinet made from cedar wood, had both doors pried open, and a few scrolls were lying on the floor every which way…not so much spilled as had been removed by hand, one by one. There was a big, empty space where the Scroll of Seals had been.

He went over to the table in front of the cases, pulled out the chair, and sat down. On a purple cushion a crystal ball gleamed up at him. It was one of the many baubles and souvenirs Uzumaki Mito had brought with her when she had left Uzushio to be with Lord Hashirama upon their marriage, and these were said to be used by her kinsmen to scope areas and study the oceans and its beasts from afar. They had fallen out of style many years later and then all but vanished when Uzushio fell during the height of the Second World War, yet the knowledge of the Telescope technique—the Far Sight, as Lady Mito had called it—remained, passed down from one Hokage to the other.

Tonight it would be used once again, not just for one gamble, but two.

The Telescope Jutsu had hand seals, but Hiruzen had performed it enough times in the privacy of this room that he did not need to form them. He placed his hands just above the crystal ball, barely touching it, and focused inward. Naruto and the Scroll were at the forefront of his thoughts, as were the damning variables of what would occur he had vocally dismissed in confidence that, even now, festered in veiled concern. He knew the boy's chakra pattern well, had known it since he had first taken him into his arms by the dying Lord Fourth as night gave way to day. He had to lose himself to the crystal ball, be attuned to it, and search as a hawk would for prey that familiar signature mixed with red.

So he did.

But his mind did not wander for Naruto.

Instead, he allowed it to drift on invisible rails that lead it to the outskirts of the Village, Point Zero. He went down, down the cold earth and moss-wet stone, down where the air was thick with leather and mineral oil, smoke from burning brands, and smoldering incense: jasmine and juniper and lavender and sandalwood, lemongrass and myrrh and chamomile and frankincense and many more. Above it all was the lingering, unpleasant stench of blood and decay.

He followed it, and soon came upon the dungeon—what the ANBU had taken to call the Maw of the Beast.

Through half-lidded, unfocused eyes he could see her in the recess of the wall farthest from the door, curled up in a loose, unwinding ball, hands clenched into fists where adamantine shackles dangled from her wrists and snaked along the floor where it met her ankles. The cell frothed and shimmered like the heat of a hot day in the distance, streaming with black-brown wisps; it turned the massive seal, shaped as the kanji for release, into a black, malformed ghost shifting in and out of reality.

The Lord of Calamity slept, unaware of the passage of time.

It frightened him how young she looked and how time no longer held any sway on a hellion, and what a ridiculous thing it was for him to think that. If anything, it brought back memories of the days after the First World War, when Mito had come in and managed to get him out of the office, telling him that as Hokage there was one more thing he had to bear. One more thing to be mindful about among many others that always had to take precedence; and so she led him there, into that secret hollow swarming with ANBU basking in the shroud of malevolence.

All the tall tales and stories he had heard in his boyhood and haunted his dreams as the wolf-headed, blood-flecked specter amounted to a baby-faced young woman not much younger than he.

Can you tell what's going on? Hiruzen asked her. Can you sense your young ward? If you can, would you please tell me so that I may get him back to safety?

The Lord of Calamity did not answer.

Hiruzen sighed, and slowly reemerged from the fog of projection back to his residence. He blinked rapidly and settled back in his chair, waiting for the feeling of displacement that sometimes accompanied the lack of Far Sight usage to pass. When he regained his bearings, he sat up and placed his hands over the crystal ball once more.

He was just going to have to do this on his own. To wait and see if his first gamble would paid off…and if he would not have to force his hand on the other.

And so this old house continued to watch and harvest his secrets, as it always did.

\---

"I got in touch with the others," Iruka's tin voice came through on the radio. "We're en route to the forest. What's the status on your end?"

Mizuki landed on the roof of a building and suppressed the button on his piece. "I got them to come around. They're such a stubborn lot, thinking he's still in town. Kid's not gonna want to dawdle and get caught in public."

"You haven't had problems with them? No signs of hellionizations?"

"We're good so far. Had some more officers convene on my position and join in with the others. You?"

"Nah, all's the same."

"No problems with your group?"

"No. But they're angry, Mizuki. They're itching to get their hands on Naruto." A pause. "I can tell what they're thinking," he stated soberly, "but they won't dare say it in front of the police."

"They're stupid. They think they know everything, but they don't."

"I know."

"Just forget them and focus on the task at hand. Give me a moment to catch my breath and I'll meet you on the other side of the forest."

"Copy that. Don't take too long." With that, Iruka ended the transmission.

Mizuki huffed and let his arm drop to his side. He walked to the edge of the roof, breathed deep, held it, and let the air out in a slow, steady stream. Up here, stories above ground level, the air was sharp on the intake but cool and crisp on the tongue like rain. Yet there was nary a cloud in the sky; all the heavens were open and naked for the world to see, and here he stood, as though he were upon the highest point of Hokage Rock and not some random rooftop of insignificant origin.

He swept his arms up behind him and over his head in a stretch, unleashing a huge yawn. It was to be expected that the kid wouldn't be here in the residential areas, and unless he wanted to get nabbed and hauled back to Lord Hokage he wouldn't be caught dead in the administrative district. Oh, he could try and hide in the slums, maybe even the red light district, but those places would be picked clean by their healthier, more lucrative brethren in their vain attempts to protect him. He was still a child even if by law he would have come into adulthood upon graduating the Academy exam; no person would think to touch someone already tainted. That left the forest…or the countryside, and Naruto had never set foot outside of Konoha.

As he was working the kinks from his muscles, a slight change came over his face. His hip had grown warm, prompting him to look down at the scroll casing strapped to his thigh. He undid it, retrieved a scroll, and unfurled it. His eyes scanned the writing.

Mizuki smirked. As if he didn't know already.

He formed the Tiger seal with the thumbs on both hands just barely touching his palmed fingers around the scroll, then pushed those hands together until they met in a quiet crackling of fire. He dusted them off, spilling ash and soot in a fine, showery mist, and took off his radio earpiece. He stared it for a moment.

And crushed it.

When he opened his hand, a whisper of unnatural smoke arose from the dust and blew away from his fingertips. Then he leaped from the roof and pressed deeper into the Village, his focus now entirely on his mission…and his fulfillment.

\---

Iruka sighed and let go of the button, eliciting a brief burst of static from the wireless radio. He looked up to see Antotsu, one of Chief Tekkou's men, regard him with a patient intensity that left him feeling ill at ease. If he should say or do the wrong thing, he thought, then the man in the metal visor will surely snap and correct him, with words or with fists. "Mizuki met up with the rest of the officers. He'll meet us at the rendezvous point shortly." He resisted the urge to shuffle his feet and anticipated the outburst that would follow.

Antotsu did not break into violent emotion. He simply huffed and scratched a spot behind his ear. "I really hope that kid's there and not miles away by now."

"Bah, he's just one kid! Not even a genin at that!" Mendeki, a lower-level chunin, groused, and spat tobacco over the side of the guard railing. "How much ground you think he's gonna cover with that thing on him?"

"You'd be surprised," Iruka tacked on, and remembered all the times Naruto had outran and outsmarted chunin drenched in paint, tarred and feathered, and reeking of a menagerie of scents while also being chased by hungry animals.

"Kid might not be pulling pranks anymore, but that don't mean he's changed!" said Jura, a mountain of a man with his hands stuffed into his pants pockets. "Ain't he the only one in your class who didn't pass the exams?"

"Well, er…yes."

"Then why all the concern? Mendeki's right; he ain't gonna get away if Konoha's got the whole police force on his ass from every possible angle. Some of us aren't as simple as you Academy folk."

"Hey, hey, who ya callin' 'simple'?" Mendeki growled. "Some o' us simple folk happen to get called into service, too, ya know! Our hands get just as dirty as yours! So do yours, right, teach? You did missions."

Iruka nodded grimly. "Yeah. I have. Twelve of them A-rank."

"See! Even he's got blood on him, so you tell me how he and I and the rest of us here"—Mendeki gestured grandiosely at the assembly of officers and chunin—"are simple! We're nothin' like those ignoramuses that yak and yak and yak in the bars and hops all day, claiming they can't 'get sick' or 'go mad' from the daemonblight because we have walls around the Village!"

"They're 'ignoramuses' because they haven't put their families through the Academy to see what it's really like," Sakana pointed out, a short woman with bandaged forearms and tonfa crisscrossed over her hips, "and when they do, half the time they pull their kids out of there, into the safety of their homes." She shrugged nonchalantly. "They forget that outbreaks have happened here, within these very walls."

"But only because they fling the excuse that 'they're ninja and we're not'!" Mendeki glowered, ending the last part of his sentence in a smarmy falsetto. "What a crock of bullshit!"

"The world's not a safe place."

"Gee, ya think?!"

"The world hasn't been a safe place in sixty years and will stay that way for countless more," said Antotsu. "So long as we do our job and keep our emotions in check, we will be the ones—not the civilians, not the merchants, the clerics, and the politicians—that will fall to malevolence."

"And the civilians outside the wall?" Jura asked sardonically. "What about them?"

Antotsu was silent, but everyone could see the ghost of his teeth chewing the insides of his cheeks. He did not look away from Jura's hard, narrowed gaze. Iruka could imagine the thought running through his mind, echoing what hundreds of other shinobi like him have thought between now and in the past: An unfortunate statistic.

Jura scoffed. "We'll catch 'im. Even if he does go past the gates, and I ain't saying he will, there won't be any unnecessary sacrifices, and if there will be…well," he shrugged, "that's on them. We're just doing our jobs."

"You make it sound as though Naruto's a carrier of malevolence," said Sakana.

"With all the people he's pissed off over the years, he may as well be! How do we know he's not already hellionized?"

"We would know if he was, and he's not," Iruka said defensively. "All shinobi can detect the change on some level. Maybe not as clearly as Lord Third or the Hokage before him, but we can nonetheless."

"Wouldn't surprise me, among other things," Mendeki mumbled, and scowled at the warning glare Antotsu directed at him.

Of course, Iruka thought, there was always that, the unspoken accusation that was also at the forefront every time Naruto (or, at least, the very mention of him) was involved: that the Fox had done something to him on the night of his birth and made him into the very boogeyman people feared, an offspring of both demon and hellion, and they were none the wiser to tell the difference. They could do nothing to him lest they sought to earn their Hokage's ire, so the best—and safest—alternative was to either ignore him or, when he had his back turned and was well out of earshot, mock him and wish upon him cruel things.

He tried not to dwell on them. "So can you sense it, Jura? Can you sense that we're infected? If so, then you had better look me dead in the eye and tell me we're all hellions, otherwise—!"

"Otherwise, you'd all be dead," Jura said ominously, and stopped short of touching his chest. He loomed above Iruka a good two feet, his shadow falling long and engulfing him its entirety. "I ain't ever heard o' any hellionized ninja who's retained his will."

"There's always a first!"

"And there's always a last, boyo! Do you know why? Because any ninja that hellionizes dies! Don't matter if it's on or off the field, they die all the same: with a sword through their bloody hearts! That's what we'll do to the kid if he's hellionized—grab the Scroll, pin him down, and skewer him raw—"

"I won't let you!" Iruka cried, and drew a kunai forth from inside his sleeve. Jura reached for the katana at his side, unlocking it from its sheathe with a fire-shot click.

"That's enough, both of you!" Antotsu stepped in between them and pushed them aside, hands glowing with blue chakra. "Reign in your emotions and look to reason! We are here to neutralize, not eliminate! If Naruto should hellionize, we will do whatever we can to contain him and deliver him to Lord Hokage with the Scroll of Seals intact. No one is going to hellionize. We will not allow it." The officers had hung back, scoping the surrounding area at different points on the roof, and at the sound of his emphasis they turned as one and regarded the chunin with a kind of parental foreboding. "Set your grievances aside for another time. We have our orders. Let's see to it that we uphold them." He moved away, telling his men they were leaving and to be on the alert.

Iruka and Jura exchanged stern glances. Mendeki and Sakana watched them, waiting to see what would happen next.

Jura huffed and locked the blade back into place. Iruka did the same with his kunai. "I make no apology, sensei," he said in a civil tone. "We are ninja; we know what must be done."

"Naruto's important," said Iruka. "You realize what'll happen if we kill him, right?"

"At least the Fox will go with him," Jura said quietly. "Then it will be a necessary sacrifice." He walked past him before Iruka could refute him. He was beside himself, torn between wanting to voice it and keeping it to himself. In the end, he sighed explosively and ran to catch up to him.

Sakana frowned. "What a mess this is."

Mendeki sighed and pushed up on his elbows to stand on his feet. "Tell me about it. All over a kid, too. 'S not like he's gonna be a problem. What the hell do they think is gonna go wrong?"

"Plenty of it if we're not careful," she added, and said nothing of the way the man scoffed at the very nation.

"We'll be fine," he said, and no more.

\---

All around him he could hear labored breathing amplified a hundredfold. In his nostrils: the stench of sweat, body odor, and then clean air as the clones dispersed in large numbers between very brief pauses. He stayed where he was, back to the tree, head down between his knees as he came down from the adrenal high. As the Scroll dictated, the chakra did not return to him, and he could feel more than sense the weariness settling deep into the coils past his bones and between his muscles.

That was fine, Naruto decided, bearing his teeth in an open-mouthed grin. The chakra would return in time, and when it did he would finally show Masters Iruka and Mizuki the Shadow Clone Jutsu and its multiplied variation he learned—and perfected!—from this very same Scroll. Maybe it was dangerous if he didn't manage his chakra properly, and maybe it made him want to pitch forward and pass out until Tuesday (regardless of whether or not his genin cell was already announced and given its leader), but it was so much simpler than the regular, illusive clone jutsu. He couldn't help wondering why shadow clones weren't taught in the Academy if all it took to wreck a person's body, mind, and their chakra systems was to cast hundreds of them, as he just did.

At least…I did something right today, he thought, and gulped in the cool, sweet air. Only when the blood stopped roaring in his ears and his heartbeat returned to its steady rhythm did Naruto pick up his head and look around. The Scroll was lying right next to him on the grass, rolled back up and, after a lot of panicking and a little searching, reapplied with the wax seal. Some of the branches on the taller, wider trees had broken and fallen to the earth from where a good number of clones must have rested their weight. The substation was no longer brimming with moonlight, having since given way to a darkness that was softer, lighter, and not so oppressive. If there were eyes in the trees and in the bushes, then they were not human and hidden well away; perhaps they were not there at all.

Naruto moved the damp hair from his eyes over his goggles. Morning would be here soon. He had to find a good place to hide the Scroll of Seals where no one would think to find it

—Fat chance of that happening—

and haul out of here. Would here even make for a good hiding spot? No, because Master Mizuki was the one who suggested it, and if he knew about this place, then so did other ninja, no matter how removed from society it was. Somewhere in the residential and public districts was out of the question, and he didn't think twice to try the more…seedier areas, where the line between law and chaos was blurred. Those bastards would probably swipe the Scroll from under him, gut him in his sleep

—Or right in front of everyone—

and do whatever their greedy little hearts desired: put in on the black market, fence it to some independent third-party, purloin all its secrets and destroy it when they were done with it.

—NO—

Naruto stared at the Scroll with dreadful awe. He could just see, as if he were standing right there, all the things that would go wrong with summoning Velvet Crowe. She would not only be very angry at the genius who decided it was a great idea to call her away from the place where she slept to do the grunt work of what she would consider a brainless monkey, but she would be hungry. Very hungry, and the whole kit-and-kaboodle would blow up in their faces. Then she would feed, and feed, and feed, and the panic and the outrage and fear would cause everyone in the red light distract to hellionize, one after the other like fire jutsu going off in tandem, and the daemonblight would spread until it consumed all of Konoha—

Naruto shivered, the spasms rippling from the walls of his stomach so fiercely he threw his free arm across it just as he bent over his upraised knees. Face scrunched in pain, he ground his teeth, unable to stop the girlish mewl from escaping him.

It was gone just as it came, but Naruto waited, waited to see if the pain returned. It did not, and he sat up gingerly, as though he was porcelain and he would crack at any moment.

No. No, the Scroll couldn't go to any of those places and it most certainly couldn't go here. Not his house, either. Where else could he go? His mind raced, trying not to bite his fingernails.

The trees beside him gave a sudden lurch. Naruto clamped his mouth down hard enough for his teeth to click, extremities shrinking and heart thundering a lunatic staccato. He made to snatch the Scroll to his chest like a child with too many schoolbooks at hand, get up, and tear out of there faster than that crazy guy in the green spandex did running laps around Konoha, and he was shocked he could actually move his arms, that he could even move at all, and when he did get the Scroll in his grip and he scrambled to his feet the person stepped out of the cover and he was too late, oh shit was he in so much trouble—

"Naruto, it's me!" said the man, and Naruto looked upon him as though seeing him for the first time.

He broke out laughing. "Master Mizuki!" he exclaimed, breathless, grinning, coming back down to earth.

Mizuki smiled, sheepish. "Hey. Sorry I startled you. I wanted to see if you were still here."

"I've been here all night training, just like you said!" Naruto said, and tried not to wince as he thumped his chest. "Uh…no one else knows about this place, right? Just us?"

"No, just us…but they know the Scroll's missing, and if they're smart they'll comb every inch of Konoha until they do wind up here. But not to worry; I know of a few spots I've made my own we can go to."

"But what if they catch us? What about you? You're risking your whole career over me! I didn't pass, so why—"

"Because I'd like to see my students succeed," said Mizuki, "but most of all, I want to see how far they can go with the knowledge that might be in there. I'm sure you've already seen how much power has been compiled over the years, just waiting to be released…to be brought back into the world! But I think at your age, perhaps it might be too soon for you to be doing that kind of thing."

"I will when I'm older, right, Master Mizuki?" Naruto asked.

His smile broadened. "If you stay on the path, then you will. You have potential, after all, and it's a shame Master Iruka didn't see that."

"I wanna show him, Master! I wanna show him the new technique I've learned! I mean, I only memorized one and it took a couple hours to get it down just right, and you're really fast, too, so that's all I could take away from it. It's the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and the last jutsu you had to show off in the exam was the Clone Jutsu. That's gotta mean something, right? He'll let me graduate for sure!"

Mizuki nodded. "Mmhmm."

"Some of these techniques…Master Mizuki, they're amazing, y'know? They're like the stuff of legends! Like…like…all those stories I used to read about in the library! The old Hokage and the, uh, what's his name, the White Fang, the Legendary Three Ninja, and even the samurai from the Land of Iron…I'm going to be just like them someday! Wait, no, scratch that—not just like them. I'm going to surpass them all!"

Mizuki pressed his lips together, but one corner of his mouth was quirked high up to show dimples. "Yeah…I know you will. But Naruto, most of that knowledge is meaningless if you can't make heads or tails of it." He held out a hand. "I can show you how to harness that power and make it your own. The world is more dangerous than it's ever been before, and if you intend to become the greatest Hokage that's ever lived, you'll have to know how to take advantage of the playing field. You have to understand that where there are hellions, there are Lords of Calamity. You remember what those are, right?"

Naruto nodded vigorously. "Yeah! They're people that can generate a ton of malevolence and look like animals but haven't gone crazy from it."

"Good. Then you know that where there are Lords, there are Kage that have to keep two steps ahead of them. They have to maintain the status quo so that all the power is in their hands, never in those who are too weak to control it or too obsessed to use it wisely. If they can't hold onto that power, then the Lord will gather his or her army and invade their country to conquer and add it to their domain. "

Naruto scratched the underside of his chin, mulling it over. "But…how can a Kage defeat a Lord of Calamity without sealing them away? Just because you beat them doesn't mean the land turns back to normal. The daemonblight's still there…there's no cure for it."

"Ah-ah-ah!" Mizuki tut-tutted, waving a scholarly finger. "There isn't a long-term solution, you mean! Everything you've learned at the Academy about agricultural purification just means we're one step closer to return the affected lands to what they once were. Trade routes will be reestablished and businesses will thrive over the bones of those that did not survive."

"Then…what about all the people?"

Mizuki frowned. "What about them?"

"Well…they're still infected. How do you change them back to humans? Hellions don't just, you know, come out of thin air." Naruto swept his arms aside, indicating the forest. "The Lord makes them that way, and if you get rid of a Lord, the people are still hellions, and if you kill those hellions, more people will become hellions. It'd never stop, so you'd have to, uh, lock them up until you find a cure, and that'd take a long, long time! So how would you make a cure for them if you can't kill them on the chance that one of them will become a Lord and start the whole thing all over again?"

The Master's face darkened, as though a cloud had come over it. Naruto didn't like the way it made him look, so he was barely aware of his grip tightening protectively around the Scroll. "You'd be surprised. People are very malleable, meaning they can easily adapt and change depending on the circumstances. Hellionization does that…but sometimes, Naruto, sometimes a person can still retain his will. Most of the time, though? Most of the time they become…different than from how they were as a human. They may forsake the laws and order they had followed in the past and embrace the darkness that's inside us but are too afraid to acknowledge, for they lose the warmth and coldness in their bodies. They may find only joy and solace in causing fights, like the yaksha hellions. They may even turn into therions and lose their sense of taste, finding only comfort and sustenance in the souls of the living and the dead." Mizuki smiled grimly. "With knowledge comes power, and with power comes consequences…but when the weak are desperate and the strong are ambitious, they'll give in and become unto gods. The longer they live, the more powerful they become…the more unstoppable they become!"

His voice had grown stronger, louder, and his face took on a pale, wide-eyed picture of a man on the cusp of discovering the most hidden, most valuable treasure in the world. It was a fell light revealing a depravity that stunned Naruto and left him breathless, as though he had been socked in the stomach.

This wasn't the kind, brotherly Master Mizuki he had admired in school. It couldn't be! This was a man wearing Master Mizuki's face, it just had to be!

—It isn't—

Naruto let go of the Scroll and with shaking hands tried to form the seals for release.

Mizuki regarded him curiously. "Naruto…what are you doing?"

"You're pulling my leg, aren't you, Master? You're just trying to scare me straight so I don't mess up, right? I-I bet all the teachers do that to their students, too, eh?"

Mizuki looked at him with the facsimile of pity. "Oh, Naruto, this is real. Everything I've told you is true, and wishing it wasn't won't do you any good. Life's a bitch, and so are the people that never told you the honest, goddamned truths."

"Like what?!"

"Why, that hellions walk among you…even now," said Mizuki, and with those words streamers of energy the color of mud leaked from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Naruto lunged backward into the tree, fumbled the Scroll and caught it before it hit the ground. The air took on a shimmering sheen, and when he exhaled he paused at the sight of the cloud his breath made.

—Look—

—Look and see—

Naruto looked up, and his mouth fell open. In place of the man with silver hair and pink skin was a tiger on two long, digitigrade legs with paws that were bigger than his head and nails like black kunai. He was hunchbacked, the tattered remains of his flak jacket hanging off a massive barrel-shaped chest slashed with dark stripes and spots. Four large spikes protruded from his back like the teeth of an ancient leviathan, gunmetal grey and perfect isosceles angles.

His stomach rolled queasily. Those weren't spikes. They were giant shuriken melded into his back. "No…No way!" he gasped.

Mizuki grinned from a feline muzzle stuffed full of sharp teeth. "Oh, it's real, alright," he said in a voice lower and more guttural than before. "This is what they don't teach you at the Academy, Naruto. This is what we can do if we just give in…what you can do, as well! All the power at your disposal, right here in Konoha, all because of Lord Velvet! You are better than you think you are, Naruto! No one will ever acknowledge you the way you are now, but if you will allow me I will show you the error of your ways…the Village's ways! Only then will you prove those ignorant fools wrong and show them for who you really are!"

"I know who I am!"

"No, you don't! You think you do but you don't! The people in their 'infinite wisdom' do!"

"Then who do you think I am?"

"I don't think, Uzumaki Naruto. I know for a fact you're a hellion! A hellion transcended to Lord of Calamity from the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox when it was bound and trapped inside you twelve years ago! Lord Fourth made you that way! It's because of him you were ignored and mocked and threatened! They balk and cower at the notion of a hellion wearing the sacred hat and garb of office when they believe those dreams of grandeur are but a front for conquest! And do you know why they act the way they do? The Fourth Hokage may have made you a hellion, but it was your beloved old man, the Lord Third, who signed into law the two decrees that pushed us further to damnation!"

The panic was there, but it ebbed away to a laser-focus attention Mizuki only saw when his class discussed hellions, their history, and how to counter them. He could not help but be pleased. "What decrees?" Naruto asked with a slight quaver.

Mizuki held up one long, thick, finger. "That the villagers must never speak of the Fox lest they be punished as far as Konoha law could allow it; and two," he held up another, "that the knowledge of mentally stable hellions must be withheld from all law enforcement and military personnel. Imagine, Naruto, what would happen if everyone in the Land of Fire were to learn that more than half the shinobi population, the very people that protect them from hellions and Lord-potentials, consisted of the very monsters they were sworn to vanquish?" A fat, pink tongue poked from his mouth and laved his lips with saliva. "That much discord would elevate us to heights that were once dreamed of!

"How about it, Naruto? Come with me. My master and I will give you the strength you need to be the Kage you were meant to be, by first unleashing the power that resides in the Scroll, used as an instrument of your bondage! Only then will you be feared and respected by the masses."

"But I don't want people to fear me!" cried Naruto, and he loathed the way he shrank on himself at the dispassionate look directed at him. "I do want to be Hokage! I want to be noticed and respected!"

"Then why dally here? No one likes you, not even the Hokage!"

"That's a lie! Master Iruka might be a hardass and pushes me to study, but he's a cool guy and he never told me I couldn't try and be Hokage! Same with the old man, too! His job is so hard because he always tells me how people disagree with him on certain things like politics and purifications and how it gets so bad that sometimes he has to stop someone from trying to kill him. He tells me that being Hokage means getting blood on your hands when you have no choice but to declare war in order to bring peace, even if it means the land gets screwed over even more and causes more hellions to spawn!

"But…even with all of that…he still tries, ya know," Naruto added. The weight of malevolence grew thicker, denser, and he clutched his chest as the weight of it sank into him like air being blown into a balloon. "He tries to help, even when the people say they don't need it. He tries even when they expect so much outta him that he can't really take some time off to get away from everything. That's why," he forced through gritted teeth, "I'm gonna stay here and earn it…the hard way! Maybe as a little kid I wanted to, but running away from the Village is something only a coward would do, so you can tell your boss that whatever he wants me for I'm not interested in it!"

Mizuki reared back on his hind paws, ears folding back in dismay. "So that's how you really feel, huh? After everything I told you, between what you knew then and what you know now, you would willingly condemn yourself to this existence? This…madness?!"

"Hell yeah I would!"

"Why would you do that?!"

"Because I know I have the Fox in me!" Naruto declared, and in that moment he thought he could feel the weight lift from him. He nodded matter-of-factly, moving his hand from his chest to his stomach, and the warmth of the beast's chakra emanated through the jacket like a still-smoldering ember. "I know," he said more calmly. "I've known for a long time I was his jailer."

Mizuki looked poleaxed, gawping, but he clicked his mouth shut and regained his composure. "Interesting. So then you aware of who Lord Fourth is to you, don't you?"

Naruto's stare was hard and crystal blue. "Yeah," he said.

The hellion sighed and ran a meaty paw through the tuff of silver fur on his head. "Fine then. I'll just drag you back to my master. Dead or alive, he'll find a use for you…and Lord Velvet." He took a step forward, and malevolence splashed with explosive force.

Naruto issued a low-pitched keen and scrambled to get up. He formed the Tiger hand seal.

Idiot! Conserve your chakra! You can't fight him as you are! You need to run!

Naruto ignored the Fox. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he called. Two dozen clones, fully fleshed-and-blooded, appeared in a ring around Mizuki. They rolled up their sleeves, clenched their fists, and with battle cries charged at him.

Mizuki brayed laughter. "That's it? Is that all you can muster?" He raised his clawed hands above his head and brought them crashing to the ground. A shockwave of purple flame bubbled outward and pierced through the column of clones like a sawblade, causing them to dissipate. "Come on! I thought you said wanted to be Hokage? You can do better than that!"

Wheezing, and finally managing to get the strap of the Scroll on his person, Naruto formed the seal again, and this time fifty clones materialized. They freed kunai and shuriken from their pouches and flung them as they ran at him.

Mizuki grinned, eyes twinkling mirth. He clapped his paws once and he spread his arms out up and over his head, creating a shield of the same purple fire that covered him on all sides. The weapons struck true…and burned away until nothing but cinders remained. The clones saw this and in their haste screeched to a halt, but their companions behind them slammed into their backs and pushed them forward to be consumed by the shield. Mizuki performed a second shockwave and the earth trembled, disposing the rest into smoke.

When he rose, he rolled his neck, eliciting several loud, crackling pops. "My turn."

Naruto slumped against the tree, staring disbelievingly. His lungs burned heat and cold. His chakra network was a barren well. His vision blurred with sweat and exhaustion. I'm gonna die, he thought. I'mgonnadie I'mgonnadie I'mgonnadie I'mgonna—

"Hm?" Mizuki's ears twitched, and he turned his head sidelong. They flickered once, twice. They drooped. The hair on the back of his neck bristled and he bared his teeth in a contemptuous snarl. "Looks like they've finally caught up."

Somewhere amidst the panic, impending doom, and the uncomfortable turning the Fox made in his navel, Naruto heard a small, clear part of him echo the word: They?

"I see him! He's over here!" shouted an excited, distant voice. Branches creaked and foliage rustled, and then a man emerged from the forest into the clearing. He was an unremarkable fellow dressed in the green and blue uniform of Konoha's ninja, the only exception being the teal, four-pointed star of the Konoha Military Police Force on his upper arms. There was a triumphant smile on his lips. "There you are, you little sneak—What in the wild fuck?"

Mizuki made the sign of the Horse, and one by one a dozen clones coalesced into being by pounding headlong into the woods, roaring not as a man but as a tiger from the darkest depths of the jungle. One appeared almost on top of the officer and grabbed him by the collar of his flak jacket as he was reaching into his weapons pouch. "BACK UP!" the man cried as he was hauled into the air. "I NEED BACK UP! WE'VE GOT A HELLION—"

He was flung back where he had come from, and there came a calamitous crash of wood snapping and surprised yelling as he met the body of an unlucky ninja. Those who had not been taken off guard landed in the clearing and on the substation's roof, weapons drawn.

From behind Naruto, another group of ninja came into view. Most ran past him as a second set of hellion clones materialized at Mizuki's back and engaged them, rendering the silence null with curses and shouts. Immediately following were clashing steel, disturbed earth, and, his nose twitching at the scent of putrescence mingled with blood.

He blinked stupidly. Where the air had bubbled around Mizuki earlier it had now engulfed the entire clearing. It was like the heat haze on the horizon had been pulled all the way to the forefront for him to see better and boil in, but this heat was wintry, the kind that lines the lungs with frost and thus make it hurt to breathe. His teeth were clenched but they rattled, his flesh swam with goosebumps and made the hairs on his arms stand on end, there was nothing in his bladder but that didn't stop his balls from sticking to his thighs, yet even though the air frothed and made the world glossy and distorted like stained glass, somehow, someway, he could see very clearly. His mind was quiet and at peace, the noise of combat resonating from a faraway dream.

—RUN—

Everything was so clear, so pristine, and he could still see the darkness: at his periphery, in the shadow of the trees and the substation, at the edges of the ninja as they ducked and weaved and shoved back against Mizuki and the clones as cardboard cutouts fighting their own inner battle for freedom. All this darkness seethed, popping as tiny, transparent bubbles that floated away and went up, up, up until they popped and drip-drip-dripped onto the ground and soaked through the grass and the dirt and evaporated into the roots of all the trees that gave Konohagakure its name and it was everywhere, it wasn't just Mizuki's malevolence but it was the officers' malevolence and the chunin's and the owls' and the night birds' and the wild animals' and the men's and women's and children's and himself. There was just so much—

RUN, YOU FOOL!

"Oh my God…Mizuki?!" Naruto gasped, startled, and saw Master Iruka standing in front of him, kunai in hand. "What in the world—"

"Holy shit…!" Antotsu hissed, and produced the scroll from his jacket.

"Hold them off!" Mizuki bellowed to those clones not yet fallen. "I'm going after him!" He made the Horse hand seal and more of the hellion shades spawned.

"Naruto, run!" Iruka roared.

"M-Master Iruka—"

"Protect that Scroll with your life!"

"But—!"

"GO!" He snatched him by the back of his collar and, putting all his weight into it, threw the boy behind him.

Naruto tripped and fell on his face, grunting as the Scroll smashed into his back. He scrabbled on hands and knees for purchase only to be picked up and all but dropped back onto his feet. "As far away as you can, boyo!" said Jura, and clasped his hand over the other around his katana. "We will hold the line!"

"We got your back, kid! Get going!" said Mendeki, and unsheathed twin, crescent-shaped sickles. Sakana kept apace at his side, summoning two doppelgangers with withdrawn, dangling tonfas.

Naruto didn't wait. He stumbled, caught himself, and ran.

\---

Yamanaka Inoichi lighted atop a skylight and paused, sucking in air and listening to the blood of his racing heart drum in his ears. His limbs thrived with a fire brought on by chakra-induced adrenaline created from augmenting his physical prowess and stamina crossing the better length of Konoha to reach Intelligence Division headquarters to deliver the Hokage's orders to all available ANBU. He could sense them now, closing his eyes as he hunkered down on his haunches and pressed a finger to the glass, concentrating on the signatures that blazed faintly across town.

Malevolence trailed behind them like phantom cloaks, and in their very centers—the wicks of their hearts, his father had once described them when he was a lad—were ashes: not quite dry but still packing enough residue to reignite, slowly and quickly. Farther away, he could caress the stain blotting the blackness behind his eyelids, violent and determined; just staring at it made his heart seize up. He had a feeling as to who it was, but the Hokage had been vague about going any further with Operation Stormchaser. Wait, he had said, and Inoichi, partly against his own judgment and partly due to understanding the situation, opted to wait. That had been two weeks ago.

Inoichi opened his eyes and looked north, beyond the forest. He didn't have to sense the Lord's Guard to know they were gathered around her cell, waiting with nervous anticipation. They would have their blades out, he surmised, low to the ground but held in steady, white-laced grips. They would pace and make nary a sound, their hidden eyes never tearing away from the woman. They would sit on the bench against the walls and keep their blades on their laps or by their sides where they could easily reach them should she prove…uncooperative. But they would watch her; oh, they would watch her until the end of time if the Hokage commanded them to, and they would be like gargoyles: immovable, untouchable, eternal.

Stopping her, however….

Inoichi blew a stream of breath from between his cheeks. He had been the Lord's Minder ever since Inomaru passed away twenty years ago, before the Elemental Nations concluded that a third world war was needed to reclaim their former power and boost their dwindling economies. On his deathbed and in his will he had given Inoichi the Red Books, records containing all the notes, designs, comments, experiment logs, and memory extractions he had documented from his time he spent in the presence of Velvet Crowe. He had gone through them since then, putting down pen to paper his thoughts and theories and hypotheses of what he interpreted from his sessions with her, and when one Red Book was filled he would be provided with another by the specialists that worked in the Konoha Archive Library. He had gone to them to receive a new Book twice, taking pains to not cram the pages with needless wordings and incomplete sketches that were not important to the research the Anti-Malevolence Department could use for developing newer and better, more efficient purification seals, for the land and, more importantly, for humanity.

The few times she refused the Mind Body Transmission, he applied the issued containment jutsu sealed in the scrolls the Shrines of the Unforgotten created and distributed to upper-level field agents or entrusted jounin-level ninja. Each time they failed, barely able to impound her. He had even performed the jutsu designed by the Shrines and the AMD to purify on a self-contained scale when the Lord exuded too much malevolence. Each time they were burned away by the seraphic fire in her left arm, and though he was still uncertain to this day if his needling convinced her, she would stuff the blight back into her, reshape that demonic claw to something more human, and, albeit disapproving and unimpressed, relented and gave him passage to do as he—no, the Hokage—was expected to do.

Strange, he thought. In spite of all the grumbling and fatalistic philosophizing, Velvet Crowe never once instigated a fight with the Guard. There were…instances where one or two of them took matters into their own hands and carry out the execution Lord First had 'failed' to uphold. Those failed, too, and he had the pleasure of seeing one happen firsthand.

Inoichi walked to the lip of the skylight and stopped. Wait, the Hokage had commanded after he relayed to him the transmissions had been sent. They could still deal with the turncoat. The forest would have to be quarantined and those inflicted by the blight under heavy observation until they were deemed safe to coexist with humanity, but they needn't kill the man. If they could incapacitate him, they could bring him back for questioning…and when they had all the information and confirmed it to be true, only then would they eliminate him. The Scroll would be back in protective custody and his master deprived of another indoctrinated agent and test subject.

But Mizuki had gotten the boy involved—Uzumaki Naruto, the Fox's Guardian (and how odd it sounded! that the beast who had the power to cause disasters and went down in history as a Lordly boogeyman had to be guarded) and the Lord's Keeper, and the opportunity for capture and interrogation was swiftly drawing to a close. He had the Scroll, he had read the forbidden spell, and in their private meetings Lord Third had always made mention how interested he was in hellions and malevolence and the tale of the Spring of Devastation. How that and his predecessors' works were the only things that kept him on track to his seemingly impossible dream.

Maybe he won't do it, Inoichi thought. He's a smart kid. He should know from the stories how she is. We can get Mizuki.

The more he tried, the more he was convinced it was useless to hold onto false comfort.

A little more confidently: Maybe it won't be so bad. Lady Mito reined her in. So did Kushina.

But Naruto was neither Lady Mito nor his mother. He was simply a boy on the precipice of adulthood, tasked with the burden of protecting the Fox from the scourge of malevolence and so much more.

We'll find a way. We have to. We can do this.

Inoichi gulped air, concentrated chakra into his feet, and bounded off the building.

\---

Tekkou Takuma flew through the air as another shockwave ran through the ranks. He gathered his chakra and flipped around so that when he fell he was on all fours, grabbing for purchase as his feet dug furrows in the ground. Coming to a full stop, he looked up and saw a hellion clone come right at him, laughing and swinging those razor-tipped claws. He rose on shaking legs and struck his blade against a descending paw. His knees buckled but he did not fall. Takuma pushed back, locked in a stalemate that bent his back with the force the clone put into its arms and the pressure growing colder and harder in his chest. He could hear the earth caving in. The taste of rot seeped into his mouth. The clone laughed and pushed again.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!" A spiraling gout of flame raced across the field and swallowed the hellion whole, scorching grass in its wake. Takuma collapsed and caught himself with one hand and used the other to stand up with the other on the sword's pommel.

Antotsu helped him get there the rest of the way. "Are you alright, Chief Tekkou?"

He nodded, panting. "Y-Yes, lieutenant. Thank you."

"We need to find a way to break through these clones and get to the real Mizuki, sir."

"I know. Do you still have the scroll I gave you?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Get it out," he said, and reached into his flak jacket to retrieve it.

A pained, angry cry punctuated his words, compelling Antotsu to spin around. A ninja—one from Chief Tekkou's group—had dropped to his knees and doubled over, clutching his head. Malevolence exuded from his body like steam. "S-Seiji!"

"It's all his fault…!" Seiji groaned. His eyes were bloodshot and bulging amid veneers of sweat and blood. He was grinding his teeth so hard his jaw popped. "Shoulda killed the little shit when we had the chance…before the demon gets out…this wouldn't be happening…!"

Another ninja slumped against a tree, breathing hard and gaze unfocused. The spaces between her fingers bit into the sharpened edges of the shuriken and bled freely. "You fucked us over, Chief!" she snarled. "Going after…one hellion…for another…they should both die!" The more she spoke, the more guttural and animalistic she sounded, the more malevolence poured from her and changed her into something foul and twisted.

More and more shinobi fell. Some were the Chief's own:

"I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die—"

"He was never one of us—"

"Find him and kill him—!"

"It hurts, oh Sage it hurts—"

"This power…so much of it…so much of it denied—!"

"Kill the demon—"

"Kill the Lord of Calamity—"

"Find him! Find him! FIND HIM!"

Their cries turned to howls and roars of beastly rage, and one by one the malevolence overtook them in combustive bursts. When their auras receded, there were no longer ninja but hellions: broad-shouldered werewolves; weasel-men and harpy-women with barbed tails and talons; shadow-wraiths keeping their former uniforms afloat by masses of blight and black chakra; abominations more outlandish and mocking of the human form.

"Goddammit, no!" Antotsu cried, and grabbed for his scroll.

One of the Mizuki-hellion clones laughed uproariously. "I was right! I was completely, absolutely right! The hatred for the boy in your hearts is so palpable I can taste it!" He sidestepped a police officer and knocked him to the ground with an elbow between the shoulder blades. "He belongs to me now! I will take him somewhere he truly belongs!" He hunched over and blocked a flurry of kunai and shuriken with his spikes. Upon rising, he yanked one out of his back with a sickening squelch and slashed through the chest of another ninja.

A werewolf made a beeline for Antotsu and Takuma. The police chief stepped in front of his lieutenant. He bit the thumb of one hand and, as he unlocked the scroll and the parchment spilled out in rolling streamers, dashed the blood across the religious formulae. "O heavenly kami, beyond space and time, hear my plea and bind this beast of corruption!" He punched the scroll to the hellion's chest. "SEAL!" He let go.

The fluttering paper turned into chakra chains, and from the casing they latched onto the hellion and wrapped around it. A circle of chakra resembling the kanji for ensnare appeared underneath its feet and glowed, keeping it in place. The werewolf growled and bucked against the chains, muscles flexing and claws digging into the earth.

Antotsu undid his own scroll and tossed it at an assortment of hellions pushing the advantage on their fellow ninja. He, too, recited the same incantation, capping it off with a clear "SEAL!" Multiple chakra chains caught the creatures and the circles shackled them where they stood. They hissed and spat at them.

Side by side, Takuma and Antotsu made the signs and from the circle-shape of their hands blew twin fireballs at the hellions. Most were incinerated and screamed their death throes, but the others broke from their bindings just as the jutsu was upon them and leaped out of the way.

"Shit!" Takuma barely got his hand on the sword before he was floored by a slavering, grinning werewolf.

He heard Antotsu cry "CHIEF!" and a similar sound of him being pushed against a hard surface punctuated by hurtful shouts. Takuma swung his head around and gasped, saw his life flash before his eyes at the oncoming paw falling upon him like a guillotine.

The werewolf jerked upward, screeching agony, and its arm went wide, shaving metal from his forehead protector and hair off his head. It fell on top of him, pushing the breath out of his chest in a wheezing whoosh. Grunting and trying not to choke on the malevolence, Takuma heaved the woman's corpse off him and sat up. A trio of harpies had pinned Antotsu to a tree; two of them lay at his feet, their throats slashed. He watched the head of the third disappear into Jura's massive hand, be raised above him, and come crashing down as a missile of feathers and spurting blood. The man stomped on its neck twice, shattering bone, and on the third he bashed its head to a gory, grey pulp. Takuma swallowed back his gorge.

Jura took Antotsu by one shoulder and yanked him out of the indentation he had made. "Th-Thank you!" said the lieutenant.

The large man chuffed. "You got lucky, boyo! Them scrolls you had ain't gonna help you anymore than those fuckin' ofuda! Don't let yer guard down!" He grasped his katana, took up a stance, and threw himself back into the fray, bellowing a battle cry.

Antotsu looked at the bodies scattered all over the clearing with dawning horror. "I knew some of these people," he murmured. His eyes were big and shiny, his face white like curdled milk. "I've known them for years."

Takuma joined him, taking note how some of the MPF emblems were soaked in blood or shredded to the point of being unrecognizable by the transformations. Noted the horror, the pain, the frustration frozen on their faces. His heart fell.

"Is that it?" Antotsu asked, waking him from his reverie.

"Is what it?"

"This. Is this it? Is there really no other way we can save them?" He sagged, bent and appearing far older than he was. "Such a waste of life…."

Takuma nodded. "We still have our mission. Regardless of their feelings toward the boy, they were still our comrades. We'll pay our dues to the dead once we get through this."

Antotsu frowned. "You mean if we survive this."

"There's no if, lieutenant," said Tekkou Takuma with firm conviction, and freed his sword. "We will."

\---

Iruka's kunai struck the clone's giant shuriken blade once more, and the shock came so suddenly it stung his arm fiercely and ran up the hill of his shoulder. He reeled back, put weight on his footing, and reared up with a horizontal swipe to the left. Steel met steel, but the beast was stronger, malevolence flooding through it like a beacon. It moved its own arm up and away, and the kunai flew from his hand and scratched past the sleeve of his shirt into his arm.

He shouted and clenched his teeth. It was as though the power lines in the distance had been severed and were sparking electricity, but it was his blood, blood spilled from an enemy—his friend! It dangled listlessly at his side and Iruka wrapped his hand around it, trying to staunch the flow that just wouldn't stop, and gazed upon the creature with a cocktail of revolt, anger, and disbelief.

"In a way, Iruka, I'm glad you didn't pass Naruto," it said, deftly twirling the shuriken blade in one paw; blood and malevolence windmilled in tiny red and black dots at his feet. "Thanks to you, you made my task so much easier. Besides, what are ninja if they can't handle a hellion who's all there in the head? Haven't you ever considered the thought? Oh…that's right." The Mizuki clone grinned. "Of course not. Quite the outdated system you have there, Master!"

How long? How long had Mizuki been this way, been corrupted into this perversion of a man he had known since childhood to be his best friend and confidante? What the hell had gone wrong, for Mizuki to think dabbling with cursed magic and give into it? And to think, he had waited all this time, just to get his hands on Naruto…

Just what did he want from him?

"GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME, MAN!"

Mendeki's voice was like an arrow, and it roused Iruka back to reality, back to the clone hefting the blade—no, not a blade, he realized with a sickening lurch, but the broken shard of the giant shuriken Mizuki preferred to carry around—and the Tiger hand seal clasped around its pointed end. The chunin soared through the air, forming the Snake seal, and slammed his hands to the ground. "Earth Release: Mountain Range!" he called, and several stone spikes erupted from the ground, aimed at the clone. It snarled and flung the shard at Mendeki, then lunged forward and grabbed the spear that punched through the earth right in front of it. His nails sliced into it, pushed through the rock and grappled for purchase. The sinews in its arms and legs bunched and corded, rising to the veiled wrappings of fur and skin. The spear groaned, its base cracking.

Mendeki swore and ducked, the shuriken shard sailing past him, slicing into one of Sakana's clones. She ignored it, put on speed, and planted a foot on the chunin's shoulder. He grunted but did not protest as she leaped off him like a springboard. She made several hand signs and drew an arm back. The tonfa she held blazed with chakra. "Fire Release: Meteor Strike!" she called, and the chakra exploded with fire. Sakana spiraled once in a descending corkscrew kick, her leg also encased in chakra

The rock spear snapped like a tree branch, and the Mizuki-hellion hauled it up against its chest, motioning to throw. It grunted as the woman landed, one foot on it, and pressed down on it and bearing the full weight of it on top of him. A fiery half-moon slash from the tonfa cut it in half, and the heat shattered both pieces into a hail of debris. Both chunin and hellion tumbled away from each other, the former managing to roll upright onto all fours.

"Now, teach!" she said, and one of the illusions that hadn't dissipated flung the shard in Iruka's direction. He ran, brushed off the pain in his left arm bouncing against him, and raised his right hand. He snatched it and winced as it bit into his skin, but he tightened his grip on it. Tightened it, reared his arm back, and with a cry threw it as hard as he could. He pitched forward and struck the ground with his chin, snapping his teeth together and blowing stars behind his eyes.

The hellion got to its feet and howled frustration as the shuriken sank into its chest with a meaty thunk! It hung suspended in midair for a second as the clone burst into smoke and blight, and then it kept going, whistling into the dark.

Mendeki pushed himself to his feet. "Helluva throwing arm you got there, Iruka…but you gotta focus! You're no good to us if you're dead! How'm I supposed to get those li'l monsters to pay attention in class?"

"I'm sorry," Iruka panted, and couldn't stop biting back the grunt as needles lanced up the shredded arm. "It's just…why Naruto? Why…Why did it have to be Mizuki—" he huffed and slid down the tree he backed into, blinking away sweat.

Sakana moved next to him and managed to shuffle Iruka around so that he was on the other side of the tree, in shadow and away from the fighting. "You just hang tight there and let us take care of these things," she said gently.

"But Mizuki—"

"Is a hellion, and if you go in there as you are now, you are going to die. You will not win against him or the others that have turned," she added sternly, and pushed him back down when he tried to get up. She frowned at the angered, wounded look he gave her and sighed. "I know you're worried, Master. We'll find him…and when we do, you're going to live to see him. Do you understand?"

Iruka sulked and closed his eyes. "Yeah," he whispered sleepily. "Just…be careful. I want to see him again…so I can clobber him…real good…." His words trailed off, slurring at the end.

Sakana jostled his shoulders. "Master? Master! Stay awake, Master!"

"Yo, I need a medic o'er here! Man down!" Mendeki bellowed above the din, and waved over a nearby officer who had heard him.

"I don't have much in the way of tools," he said after he assessed Iruka's wound, "but I can try to staunch the flow and keep him out of the way until this blows over where he can get more medical attention."

"That's fine, do whatever ya can! We'll hold 'em off! Come on, Kana!" He whipped out several shuriken from his pouch and clenched them between his fingers, charging into the fray. Sakana harrumphed, twirled the tonfa into her grip, and joined him.

\---

The trees…the trees were watercolor, colors blurring and running together in a palette of muck and oil. That was how they looked to Naruto as he pelted deeper into the woods, heedless of his clothes snagging and tearing on branches, crushing twigs and sticks underfoot, and crashing past shrubs and nearly slamming into trees wider than he was. He didn't look back. He couldn't, wouldn't, because if he did then that thing would be galvanized to run faster, faster, until it was right on top of him and had him by the scruff of the neck to…what, take him to its master? No. No, it would eat him, suck the meat right off the bone, the soul from the brain, and leave his body for the carrion birds to pick clean—

"GOT YOU!"

Naruto's heart damn near leaped from his throat. He glanced behind him and felt all the breath go out of him as a paw swept in like a scythe. He ducked, heard the crack of his ankles twist inward and kick blindly, uselessly, as he turned on his side and fell. He hit the ground and rolled away, but his sternum burned, as if he had been branded, and his mind went white.

The trees stopped shaking and the branches stopped breaking, interceded with quiet, heavy breathing and padded footsteps. Naruto groaned, sat up, pressed a hand under his left armpit, and drew it away. It came back bloody.

"You're such a troublesome boy," Mizuki said, staring down at him from his nose, "but that's alright. The master has a knack for calming the nerves. I promise you: if you're good and don't raise a fuss, he'll give you the best treatment one could hope for. We'll take good care of the Fox, too."

Like hell he will! the Fox said. He will not have me!

Naruto managed to get up on one knee, tried to push into a standing position. The laceration flared, sending fire and lightning along his arm. He bit back a cry and collapsed. Blood dripped and dyed the grass in nonsense patterns. I…I don't have enough chakra, Kurama—

Just enough, he growled. That's all I need.

For what?

He looked up and Mizuki was five feet away and closing that distance. In that one second he was there, finishing cracking his knuckles, and when he blinked Mizuki's arm was outstretched and the shadow of his paw engulfed his head. Naruto closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. It never came, and he kept them closed as a starburst of chakra like heat rushed through his pressure points and out into the open, searing his vision in red-yellow radiance.

The Fox's chakra covered him like a cloak, and the topmost half shifted and shaped into a fiery interpretation of himself, teeth bared and hackles pronounced. Mizuki yelled and backpedaled away, and Naruto opened his eyes to see him flailing his burning arms. He sniffed rot, singed fur, and cooked flesh. The smell, in conjunction with the pain, almost knocked him out.

We need to summon Velvet, said the Fox.

Naruto's breath hitched. Are you crazy?! What…What if she eats us?

Then it'll be a helluva lot more quick and painless compared to what this guy has in store! And even if she wanted to devour us, she'd be fucking all of Konoha over. It'd be more than just losing two military assets.

How bad would it be?

It'd make the Spring of Devastation look like a cakewalk…but she won't eat us. She is no fool. They paused, and as if looking through the world from over the Fox's shoulder, Naruto could see the flames on Mizuki's arms dying out. We need to do it now. Do you remember the sequence?

Naruto swallowed thickly. "Y-Yeah. A little bit…."

Daub your hand in blood and trace the sign while I recite the seals…and when she comes, stay out of her way!

Naruto nodded, and without a second's hesitation he slapped his hand against the wound. He winced as he pulled it back, but he bit his lower lip and curled the upper back in a snarl of concentration. His fingers raced across the grass, swiping here, slashing there. Like magic, the kanji for awakening was formed.

It was like kneeling over the precipice that dropped into an abyss leading to eternity, the jaws of a beast lurking in the darkness for decades biding its time for food and, seeing this small, blonde morsel falling headfirst into the unknown, would open wide and consume him whole. Or perhaps there would only be just darkness, maybe there would be an end to the fall, and if he should reach it he wondered if there would be a light to greet him. What kind of light would that be? To the Pure Lands? Hell? Or something beyond that?

I don't know…and I don't care. Until the day I become Hokage, I won't die! He brought his hands up and, at the Fox's directions, made the seals.

I won't let anyone or anything stop me—

Boar.

Dog.

Not the dissenters, not my enemies, not the malevolence and the hellions.

Bird.

Monkey.

Not even the Lord of Calamity herself! I decide where I want to go!

RAM!

Naruto clapped his hands once and slammed them on the symbol.

"Summoning Technique: Velvet Crowe, Lord of Calamity! AWAKEN!"

\---

The dream came to an abrupt end, without fanfare.

It began as the sensation of a hole being poked through the veil of sleep, as if done by a finger, or a knife, or a drill. One was made, and then another. And another. And another, and with each hole the old world melted into darkness and this brave, strange new realm arose in clear, muted light.

The young lad's face crumbled to ash and gave way to another: clad in orange, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and the whisker marks that branded him as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's guard and jailer.

He looked so much like him….

"Oh fuck!" a voice, distant and alarmed. The sounds of stamping feet and drawn steel banished the fog like a breath of wind.

She blinked, and beheld the torchlight illuminating her chamber. She saw the face in the fire as much as she could see it within herself.

It's time, Velvet, said the malak.

She rumbled acquiescence and brought up her shackles. Adamantine…mined from the Uzushio quarries and carted to Konoha to be forged into the chains that kept her bound and the blessings of the masked Uzumaki kami that suppressed her malevolence. Both of these abilities forever lost to time, reclaimed by the earth and the seas.

The seals inked and set into the shackles burned away, leaving behind bare metal. She glanced down at her feet and those bindings, too, were gone. The kanji on the floor, the last of the defenses imbued with Lady Mito's fuinjutsu, was swept away as though by the breaking tide.

She tested the manacle on her right arm, pulling gently. Bits of dirt and debris rattled down the wall behind her.

She yanked hard, and shackle and chain snapped in twain.

The gate flew open.

She yanked to the left, and the chains clanged to the floor. She gazed at her arm, flexing her fingers. Someone had changed the bandages recently; they had yellowed, but they were not bloodied.

She had not fed in so long.

I…hunger.

Go to him, said the malak. Your young ward calls for your aid.

My ward….

Memories of the man who had passed his resemblance onto his son, interposed with the man draped in angelic wings, resurfaced, blending bloody, sacred sword and scarlet moons and fire and children together.

She shot to wakefulness.

"HALT!" cried the ANBU, dashing into the cell. He snatched the ofuda off his belt and raised it, the symbols radiating with chakra. "The power of the Sage compels you—!"

He yelled, backing away from the malevolent aura pouring out. The walls cracked and the floor caved in, lending the chamber to a shrinking, concave appearance. The ANBU at their comrade's back assembled around him, watching with awe and dread as the blight morphed into the shade of a faceless, bipedal wolf, its hair long and voluminous and meshing with her torn, black coat. They looked as one, woman and Lord, past the ceiling, past the creeping dawn, past the miasma that ensconced the world in its fell embrace.

There, said the malak.

She found him, superimposing over the scene of the cowering ninja before her. In the forest by the walls encircling the Hidden Village, held up in the air by the hair in the hellion's paw.

Her arm twitched.

Fresh meat.

She broke down before their eyes, atom by atom, until she was no longer wolf and woman but malevolence itself. It hung in the air for that one long, breathless second—

And then it was gone.

\---

"LORD HOKAGE!" Inoichi cried, pounding up the steps to the bedroom. He had to have felt it, had to have noticed the sudden drop in temperature that surely must have hit all of Konoha, maybe in all the Elemental Nations and as far away as the West, in that moment. Most would not be awake to feel it, maybe not even realize what had just happened, but they would know in time. For better or worse, from this day onward, the world was forever changed, and so were the lives of all that would interact with Uzumaki Naruto.

He tried not to think of what the future had in store for Ino.

He caught himself on the threshold and doubled over, gasping. "Lord Hokage! The jutsu has been used! Naruto used the jutsu!"

"Aye," said Sarutobi Hiruzen, nodding. "So he has." He looked up from the crystal ball to the window. "The Lord of Calamity walks again."

\---

He had been on the verge of blacking out when the sudden change in gravity shocked him awake. The world became dark, cold and damp like the grave, and Naruto coughed and spluttered. He grit his teeth not against the stench but the utter futility of it all: foolishly expending chakra when he should've called it back instead of wasting them admiring his shadow clones, the fire under his arm and the blood running and caking all on his left side, his limbs too numb and heavy to at least try to grab Mizuki's arm and inflict some sort of pathetic scratching on him.

He seethed with rage, not at Mizuki but at himself for being so stupid and weak and desperate for a chance like the selfish little boy he was.

I should've just said no.

I should've just gone back to the Academy like anybody else would and take it more seriously.

He looked upon Mizuki's grinning, triumphant face and despaired. She's not gonna come, Kurama. We're gonna die and she's not gonna die—

The Fox growled, frustrated if not impatient.

Mizuki laughed. "I guess all the fight's done gone out of you, eh, Naruto? That's a waste of chakra, you know! My master always told me to never expend your power all at once, because someday you just might need it. Don't you fret, you'll regain it soon enough—"

It happened quickly, and in the days that would come Naruto would wonder if in his weakened state he imagined it. The dawn was closing in and so the forest was more blue than black, but in that second it had gotten dark, dark like how the storm is past the horizon and right on top of you, your house, and blanketing all but the thinnest sliver of green-white sky, and the air had taken on an electric quality. Here, in that dreamlike instance, dawn became night, and a flash like lightning seared his vision and, very briefly, made him blind.

He recalled as he fell that lightning wasn't supposed to be red.

Or black.

Finally! the Fox said, relieved, and Naruto saw an image of hungry eyes and salivating teeth flash through his mind.

He sat up, nearly falling back at the sight of a transparent shape encircling him protectively. It had the body of a wolf but the head was a cross between that and something reptilian, perforated with scales, horns, and a high, upswept frill like a crown on its nape. It stared down at him, lending Naruto the impression it was studying him, judging him. What little gaze he could decipher in those flame-etched eyes was cold, detached, and imperious. He shrank further into the ground, eyes roaming up past its thick faux-hide where its body melded into the cloak of malevolence.

His mouth went agape.

She didn't have a wolf's head. She didn't have wings or horns or was a walking, fiery tempest like some of his classmates said she had, in those days where their youth was innocent and not yet fully blossomed. The world didn't explode into scorched earth nor did it blacken with the herald of thunder. Her aura did not steal the breath out of his lungs or crush him to immediate suffocation, but he had forgotten to breathe and the tightness in them reminded him to forego that same breath in an unceremonious stream.

She…was human. Black hair that went all the way past muscular legs and ended in a small tail tied with a white ribbon. Pale skin peeking in between the tatters of leather pants and the long, black and red-lined coat. The bandaged left arm. Steel boots and a vambrace on her right arm, blade extended.

It dripped with blood.

"It's you," Naruto whispered, awestruck. "Velvet Crowe." She turned her head slightly and peered at him with one amber eye.

Mizuki raised his arm and gawked stupidly at the inch of bone protruding from the stump. He glanced at the shorn piece writhing on the ground, back at the stump, and then at the woman. "The Lord of Calamity," he breathed, and Velvet regarded him fully, expressionless. Mizuki giggled. "By the Sage…! It really is you! H-How…How long has it been since you've been outside? Five years? Twelve? Fifteen? Oh, what does it matter, you're here now and in the flesh! The Butcher of the West, the Harbinger of the End of Days, walking the land of shinobi once again!"

Velvet said nothing.

Mizuki backed away. "H-How does it feel, Lord Velvet? Y-You must be terribly, terribly hungry. You can feel it, don't you? Food just won't do. I-I can give you all the souls you desire until you're fit to burst! You will not be found wanting for weeks! Months! Everything you want, everything you dreamed of in that wretched hole, Lord Orochimaru will grant it to you! You will not find these things anywhere else! W-Wouldn't you like that?"

Velvet didn't respond. She looked at Naruto again. "Watch me."

Naruto blinked. "H-Huh?"

"Just this once." Her voice was smooth and deep. "I will show you what it means to endure." She flicked the blade once, dashing blood on the grass. Malevolence spewed from the bandages.

Mizuki held his paw and stump up in a placating gesture. "W-Wait! How about we talk this over? Please? No. No…no no no NONONONO—!"

The giant red claw grabbed him by the head and slammed him up against the tree. He screamed into her hand. She silenced him by shoving the blade into his chest one-two-three times, splashing blood on herself. He screamed again, high and keen like an animal, and she silenced him forever by chopping into the meat of his neck with several, rabbit-quick chops.

She pressed her claw deeper into the tree, trapping his head and body in a life-sized indentation wracked with fissures. The scaled wolf appraised Naruto one more time, brushed its nose into his hair, before being snuffed out like a candle.

The arm pulsed a volcanic red.

Don't look away, Kurama told Naruto, and he was stunned to hear an emotion he'd never guessed the Fox knew nor could express: tight, raw fear. This is the nature of a therion. We must provide.

For how long? he asked.

…I don't know.

And Naruto watched, dumbstruck, amazed, and horrified as Velvet fed on Mizuki, sucked him up into her arm like liquid through a straw. All the while, his body disintegrated in wisps of malevolence and chakra, stripping away the hellion and revealing the face of a man locked in terror and torture. Then that, too, fell apart.

In two minutes, Mizuki, formerly of Konoha, was no more.

Velvet stepped away from the tree and let her claw drop to her side. A flurry of malevolence swirled around it in a black tornado, and before Naruto's eyes the demonic arm shrank and became human again. The blight soaked into her, diminishing the aura until it receded completely and the area did not seethe with it. She clenched her fist, and the blade retreated into the vambrace.

She turned around to face him. Blood flecked her cheek and dribbled down the slope of her neck, past the hollow of her throat and the bottleneck between her breasts. The first rays of dawnlight peeked through the trees, catching the blood and turning them into glittering rubies.

Naruto sighed wearily. He didn't back away even if he could; he stayed where he was as she walked up to him. Her gait was strong, straight, assured—the stride of a woman come out of the annals of history that played like a dream.

The stride of the Lord of Calamity.

So beautiful.

He welcomed the darkness just before he hit the ground.


	3. Bloodbound (and Wanting)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the lack of update, since this particular chapter has been uploaded on FF.net for a good while now and I had yet to make the time to put it up here. I would still expect infrequent updates, not only because I'm going to work and very soon will be enrolling in college courses in the spring semester, but rather I can't anticipate just how long these installments might end up being. On the other hand, notes have been taken down in my notebook up to (so far) Chapter 5 and worldbuilding plus pieces of future chapters are on the odd blank sheet of paper scattered in this small room of mine, so no, this story is not dead. If circumstances are good and I dredge up the motivation, I intend to keep it going for a long time (regardless of whether or not the _Zestiria/Berseria_ games get a third chapter, but having one will really help with what I have in store for content post-Fourth War)
> 
> -
> 
> From the Fanfiction.net notes, 10/07/2017:
> 
> \- A couple chapters have already been outlined ahead of time (with some scenes being cut, such as one written, of the other eight jinchuuriki and Akatsuki's role being mentioned in a months-long time skip inspired by _The Lord of the Rings_ ; and another in the notebook: one of Temujin and Kahiko making their own comments about Velvet's awakening (which there's plenty enough going on in this chapter); and one of Iruka being up and about, asking for an update about the condition of the OCs), and while for a time I did consider chopping it in half I figured it would create a jarring transition that wouldn't work very well with the next chapter. In the end, I decided to keep everything as it is and, regardless of the outlines, just aim for Tolkien-sized chapters unless I feel a chapter is required to be split in half or adjusted.
> 
> \- For musical inspiration: I listened to soundtracks from _Chrono Trigger_ , _Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind_ , and _Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion_ , specifically two tracks by Jeremy Soule ("Over the Next Hill" and "Harvest Dawn") and a thirty-minute loop of "Singing Mountain", composed by Mitsuda Yasunori. However, only Elder Scrolls tracks were applied to set the scene that takes in Naruto's mindscape.

3.  
Bloodbound (and Wanting)

Strange things occurred on this day, the dawn of January 20 in the one-thousand-thirteenth year after the Sage of Six Paths left his mark upon the shinobi world (or so history goes, for these records were worn with time). This night would not only herald the return of the True Lord of Calamity, but as the years waxed and waned Naruto and all those associated with him would come to know it as the beginning—and the end—of not one, but two eras.

The cold that rode on the coattails of her awakening would be felt not only in Konoha, but it would be talked about in curious, nervous tones in their neighboring countries and beyond. Some felt the change more strongly than others.

-

Shimura Danzou was not the first man to have sensed the change (that honor belonged to none other than Yamanaka Inoichi, son of Inomaru), but he was the first man to realize that where a Greater Lord—the _Lord of Lords_ , as the commonfolk liked to call Her—made presence, that meant change. Change for Konoha, change for his people, and where there was change there were hellions, destruction, outbreaks. Most of all, it signaled a new chapter—or an epilogue—in the annals of the history of the world.

The shift in temperature drew him from his meditations, and he opened his single eye. It narrowed at the wall, beyond it, the crow's feet around it emphasized. _Again,_ he simmered. _Again you bring that demon back into the world. Do you honestly believe you can keep her on that leash? Do you even realize the extent of the consequences that will affect us when word gets out?_

"Insufferable fool," he growled, and that was all the emotion he allowed himself to feel before he closed his eye and concentrated. Her curse may be in the air and in the water and wormed its way through the earth, but it would not hold sway here. Its touch would not reach him or his soldiers. They were true shinobi, they who rejected the gift of ninjutsu when the Sage introduced it to the Far East. These were men who saw little purpose in jutsu outside of the realm of duty and professionalism. These were men who were raised from childhood to sever their ties to humanity and master the animals that dared to escape from their proverbial cages.

They were the Roots in the Dark, the Pillars of the Great Tree, where neither beast nor hellion tread. They were men enlightened and above such trivialities.

-

In a cave tucked beneath the hillocks of Kusagakure, Hoshigaki Kisame gasped, starting at the harsh chill he had breathed into his lungs. He raised a fist to his mouth and coughed. "Zounds! What a foul odor!" he cried, when he could speak again. He picked up his sword, Samehada, from where it was propped against the wall and stepped out into the dawn of a new day.

He looked east, and the gills on the sides of his cheeks flexed, venting malevolence. "Did you feel that, Itachi?" he asked. "I don't think that was no ordinary hellion that just spawned."

"It was not," said Itachi, and Kisame twisted around behind him to the sight of a black pinwheel in red staring back at him. "It is much worse than that."

Kisame hummed. "Do you think it was—?"

Itachi blinked and shifted, showing the barest hint of purple skin and streamers of brown blight warping the rock into a watercolor curtain. "Yes. Orochimaru cannot put out this much malevolence. Most Lords wish they could surpass Her."

"But…all the way out here? I thought domains were restricted to the origin of hellionization."

"Not always."

"Then that would mean her domain wouldn't be in the Far West but in…." He trailed off, but Itachi nodded confirmation. "Huh. Things are gonna start getting interestin' now." He turned back east. Samehada rumbled hungrily beneath his hand. "No, my friend, this ain't one meal you don't wanna have. Not all in one go."

He stayed there for a time, watching the sunrise, and didn't move when Itachi came to stand beside him later on. He was glad that, if given the choice, he would bear to be in the presence of his partner's malevolence over what that poor kid in Konoha must be dealing with.

-

Jiraiya had woken the second the jutsu went off, at first blearily, forgetting where he was. Then, as the chill of malevolence set in and the status quo raced to accommodate, he saw the bed he was in…and the prostitute sleeping next to him. She shivered and curled up in a ball for warmth.

He sat up, hissed and grabbed his aching head, closed his eyes and waited for the vertigo and the nausea to pass. Sage, but did he go overboard on the sake. When he felt better, he looked back at the woman, saw she was bare, and draped the sheet over her. It didn't do much, but her shaking subsided. He got out of bed and on his way to the balcony grabbed the robe off the rack and tied it on. Pushing open the door, he stepped out and flinched at the cold slapping his skin. He rubbed both arms and stepped toward the railing where he gazed at the sky, where the last of the night's stars stubbornly resisted the transition to dawn.

There were no stars, only full dark.

Jiraiya blinked, and the stars were back…or perhaps they were always there. _What the hell was that just now?_ A whorl of cold air blew from the corner of his vision, and he looked to see his breath steaming between his lips. _Holy hell._ He fastened his robe as tight as it would allow, but gooseflesh claimed him head to toe and his testicles were shriveled slugs clinging to his thighs. He blew air into his hands and rubbed them for warmth, useless as it proved.

His first thought was that he hadn't heard any news of snow, what with the few scant leads provided from his spy network regarding Operation Stormchaser sending him north to the Land of Hot Water. Orochimaru was said to have been in this area, but so far he had not yielded any results that he had passed this way; and how peculiar it was that nothing came of this venture, for the winter this year had proved very warm and unusual, being not too far removed from the Land of Fire.

His second thought was that there were hellions congregating nearby. _Not impossible, but I would've heard something a long time ago if that were the case. Not to mention there are patrols coming and going between here and Frost._ And Sound, Jiraiya amended, there was that, and that was another thing he would have his folk keep an eye on. _They'd have dealt with them already._

Which meant if this wasn't the product of hellions, it was product of a Lord of Calamity.

_But this place would be on high alert if it was, and what would a Lord want from Hot Water other than to expand their domain? It's not like recidivism's a big problem here._ But if a Lord bore any ill will and wanted to maintain consistency in pumping out hellions, they would come to bring agricultural ruin and convert as many innocents they could find to add to their ranks. _The network would've said something if there was a Lord around._

It reminded him of the times Lord Third approached him with talk of becoming Hokage (or a Hokage-potential): once, when Orochimaru had defected and his hopes that his student would see reason and accept the Village as a family to protect and sacrifice for had been dashed; and once, shortly after Minato perished in the Fox's attack…hoping he would also take Naruto under his wing instead of being relocated to the orphanage when he was older. Because he did not wish to upset the balance between clans by depositing him in any one nor let him be taken in by Danzou ("All the better to keep the boy and the Fox subservient for his own ends," he had said), and the civilian families that had their stakes in the economy would want nothing to do with him. He had considered hunting down Tsunade's location, wherever she was lurking, and convince her to come back, but her defiance of the Will of Fire flew in the face of all he held dear, and though he wished so much it was not the case he could not blame her for feeling that way. That left one other person, the old man added, who _could_ provide for him, who _could_ give him some semblance of a normal life before he was old enough to enter the Academy, and Lord Third had shown him that one time he had been asked to be his successor. He lead him through the hidden tunnels that had once been for emergency evacuations until Lord First had refurbished them as vents for the daemonblight so as not to corrupt, and there swore him to secrecy to never reveal what he learned this day if he should refuse his offer.

_You're putting your neck on the chopping block!_ was Jiraiya's response, after they had left Point Zero. _You may think no one's going to know what she really looks like, but even if you dress her up in different clothes or change her name or have her under a transformation jutsu it'll do nothing to mask all that malevolence! You'll be marking that kid for life! And how would you give her sustenance? How are you gonna explain to him that she can only taste blood and eats souls because food is useless? Even better: what if she rejects him? She'll probably want nothing to do with him for the sole reason he's the spitting image of his father. She might eat him and the Fox, and what then, old man? What then?_

_It would never work,_ he thought now, turning south where Konoha lay. _Not only that, but to even think extending an olive branch to the woman who nearly wiped us all out would erase all her sins and redeem her…you can't save everyone, old man._ "Especially if they don't want to," he mumbled, and reminisced on the man with the ivory skin, straight black hair, and serpentine yellow eyes.

-

In the Land of Honey, where the bees were many and flowers invaded as much land as they could creep and flourish, Senju Tsunade considered the roulette wheel with equal amounts of dread and expectation. A whole crowd was pushing up behind her, with Shizune standing close by so as not to get crushed up against the table; Ton Ton the pig oinked worryingly at the colored chips on the table. There were two sets of chips between them: the reds, being her original bankroll, and the blues, the earnings she had made throughout the night. It was a decent pile: not high, but certainly not bottom of the barrel.

"Last bet, madam," the dealer declared, and leveled a stare down his aquiline nose at her. "What will it be?"

She glanced up at him. "Basket on red. All of it." There was a chorus of gasps and murmurs, interlaced with drunken hooting and high, raucous laughter to which she ignored. What did she have to lose, other than money and the ego she had bruised and battered since she had first taken up this habit?

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune started, tentatively.

"Are you sure?" the dealer asked, arching a brow.

"I'm sure," said Tsunade. "No wager mid-turn, either. All or nothing."

He sniffed, and she couldn't tell if he thought her very confident or very foolish. She figured it was both, considering her renown. "Very well then. No more bets." He took a green chip from a pocket in the table and with the cue pushed it onto a stenciled square labeled color bet. He placed the tips of his fingers against the outer rim of the wheel and gave it a few quick, perfunctory spins, enough so that the red and black numbered tiles didn't turn into a whirlwind. At the last spin he snagged the little white ball from his shirt pocket, dropped it into the wheel, and drew his hand back out.

Around and around the little ball went, riding the rim in one swoop…two swoops…three swoops…edging closer and closer to the notches that would bump it into any of the tiles below.

Tsunade breathed out and swallowed through a suddenly parched throat. Shizune squeezed TonTon tighter to her chest, causing the pig to protest more out of discomfort than concern. All that existed in this moment was the wheel.

Tsunade breathed in and gasped as her lungs filled with a shockingly cold blast. The hairs on the back of her neck and arms rose, and there was a pervasive, tingling in her chakra that made her think of twin magnets of the same polarity repelling each other. She brought up an arm and coughed into it, convulsing through her green haori as a tide of gooseflesh overtook her.

The crowd sucked in a quick, shallow breath, as though they were of one mind, but Shizune's was the loudest among them, high and startled. TonTon squealed disbelief. Clearing her throat and getting her breathing back under control, Tsunade picked her head up.

Her breath fled her.

The little white ball was resting on Red 3.

"By the Sage," Shizune breathed, staring poleaxed at the wheel.

"Well I'll be damned," the dealer said in a hush.

Damned, indeed. There were curses, oaths, and money being exchanged between hands. People were clapping, whistling, murmuring amongst themselves the one thing they thought they'd never see: Senju Tsunade, the Legendary Sucker, winning at a game! And it was all or nothing!

_Just like the stories._

"Congratulations, madam. Would you like to go for another round—?"

"I'm good," Tsunade said, and pushed off the table. "I'll collect my winnings at the front." With a sweep of her haori, she spun on her heel and all but pushed past the crowd, ignoring the bewildered look he was giving her.

"Lady Tsunade, wait!" Shizune adjusted her grip on TonTon and eased her way through the throng. When she cleared it, she let the pig spill from her arms onto the floor and raced after the older woman. "Lady Tsunade, what's wrong—"

"You felt it, too, didn't you?" she asked, not slowing down. "That black wind…."

"The black…?" Shizune paused, and Tsunade didn't have to realization that dawned on her. "But my Lady, that can't be!" she said, quietly, so that none could hear. "The Lord of Calamity is dead! Lord First executed Her!"

"All the stories you heard were falsified to protect everyone, but they didn't do any good. Not for long, anyway." Tsunade said, just as conspiratorially. "Come on. Let's pick up the winnings and go."

"Go? Go where?"

"Anywhere." _Anywhere but Konoha,_ she wanted to add, but didn't speak it. "If you're that curious, I will tell you, but not here. Too many eyes, too many people." _But they'll know soon enough,_ she did think, and what did it matter to her about Konoha? The Hokage was a death trap for idealistic fools (even a hard realist with good intentions like Granduncle Tobirama), and, as much as she had loved him, she considered her grandfather a fool to not have slain the Lord when he had the chance.

_And now we're going to have to pick up the pieces again when shit gets out of control, all because of her._ Her lips pulled down in a tight frown. _Grandfather, what were you thinking?_

She picked up the pace.

-

They had stood there at the wall-high window, high above the sleeping city of Amegakure where they held their most important meetings, away from the prying eyes and open ears of the less important shinobi, when a most curious thing occurred: the rain stopped. It had come down in a single, grey sheet, without pattern and without end, and just as they could blink, it had simply ceased to be, though the clouds continued to hang like an all-seeing, lidless blind eye.

Then it began again, a stilted slideshow progression: a raindrop hit the glass, a pause, another raindrop, a third, a fourth, more. The drizzling turned into an easy shower, strengthened into a steady shower, a downpour, and finally a storm that roared and battered the rooftops as though they were the leviathans of myth, blocking naval passage between the Hidden East and the Far West.

Konan's head snapped up, suddenly awake, and her eyes flicked wildly between one point of Amegakure to the next, searching. "What…What was that?" she gasped, and the words that came out sounded as though she had held her breath underwater for a long time. "Just now…."

Pain blinked mauve, rippled eyes, and his reflection's red head moved just a hair, past the city and the rain. "Something wicked stirs," he drawled. "The Devourer has returned."

"No! _The_ Velvet Crowe?" Konan whirled on him. "But…she was slain! Surely the First Hokage wouldn't have kept her alive after all this time?"

"You must believe now. This is not a pretender or a lesser Lord we are contending with. This is the First Lord, the True Lord, who had shattered the peace that had been established with the foundation of the Hidden Village system and nearly succeeded in turning the world into a demon-infested wasteland. Why she is still alive and not dead as she should be, I cannot say, but there is one thing I know for sure." Pain turned around. "We must do what the First Hokage could not."

"And the curse?" Tobi asked, gesticulating as always. "Tobi wants to know about the curse!"

"The plan is the same as always. Nothing has changed, and it would not have changed even if Lord Velvet had awoken later down the line. The only difference is that we will have to move more efficiently and go where we must." He walked past his two comrades.

Konan watched his receding back, into the gloom of predawn where a flash of lightning threw his shadow against the wall. "Do you really think we can stop the Lord of Calamity? I've heard the rumors…rumors of Konoha turning the Wars in their favor with the recruitment of an unknown third party. If she's been asleep all this time, then…would that mean she's regained her former power? How can we hope to defeat a god?"

Pain stopped in the middle of the doorway. "No god is infallible, Konan," he said, "nor are they without sin. I myself am not without sin. Even the state of perfection itself is, by rote, imperfect, for the state of one's being must be broken piece by piece before it can be put together again. The cracks are always visible and can never truly fade, but given time they will become normal. They will become…beautiful, more distinguished than what they had been before. These scars will serve as a reminder so that they must never bear repeating, lest we lose sight of ourselves and commit to these follies again. It is through our actions we will assure peace in the world and the complete elimination of the Devourer: body, mind, and spirit. Through this, she shall not be found wanting in the hearts of men."

"Tobi thanks you, Great Leader!" said the man, hands pressed together and bowing vigorously. "Tobi finds your words very inspiring!"

"Then may they serve you well in these dark times ahead," said Pain. "Go and recall all available operatives from the field. I shall put the people at ease, and we will go from there once everyone has been assembled. You are dismissed." He merged with the shadows, his footsteps muffled by another loud clap of thunder.

"Yes, sir," said Konan, after a moment's hesitation, and flickered out of the room in an eddy of paper. Tobi lingered, shifting from one foot to the other, giggling, and then he, too, was gone.

-

The little garden snake was making another go between his fingers when he sensed the seal going up in flames: a muffled _whoomph!_ and, as Orochimaru glanced up and suspected, a funnel of smoke and chakra that spattered across the desk in an ashy shower that burned holes through it. Wisps of blight spat and hissed, frolicking about in the acidic heat its destruction had left in its wake.

Orochimaru hummed. That meant Mizuki had failed to capture the boy and the secrets contained within the Scroll of Seals. With the destruction of the tracking, sigil-based chakra seal, it meant he had died, and with all the…modifications he had provided the young man, he should have made quick work of whatever mooks old man Sarutobi had thrown his way. Yet he didn't, and that also meant someone had gotten the better of him.

The boy had potential, sure…but he was just that, and without proper training he would never have handled Mizuki. To think otherwise would be reaching the height of foolishness (and arrogance, he noted; his people had the habit of just gloating their inherent dominance without backing it and earning their victory). Any other ninja that wasn't equipped with those mediocre containment scrolls and had some experience fighting hellions would be hard-pressed, as well. An ANBU would have had better luck…but death was the best thing that could have happened to Mizuki. With his passing, all the information they could have gotten out of him regarding Otogakure, the cursed seal experiments, and their plans they had intended to make use of with the Scroll was gone.

And the True Lord, and that, too, made him frown. Perhaps he should have done more with Mizuki or sent a stronger ninja with a more reliable cursed seal to play the mole. He could think of all the possibilities, all the variables, all the jutsu, that would have opened up by having the girl and her malevolence under his thumb…but alas, she was beyond his reach.

_For now,_ he thought, and didn't so much as flinch when all but one sconce went out, plunging the room into near total darkness. He exhaled, eyed the frost that clung to his breath, and looked at the garden snake. It was entwined around all five fingers now and it stared back at him, head cocked askance with wide-eyed curiosity and…worry? Yes, that was indeed worry he saw. It flicked its forked tongue, darting back and forth across his skin, as if asking for reassurance.

He stroked his thumb atop its head. "No need to fear, little one," he drawled. "The Beast-Eater is far away from here; she won't touch you. If she does…well, I have ways to keep her under control. Every weapon, no matter how big or small, must maintain a fine balance before it can be mastered. Remember?" The garden snake did, and it looked upon Orochimaru with knowing and renewed respect.

"Lord Orochimaru!" said a voice, and he didn't look up to see the lad barge into his chamber as though the Lord Herself was on his heels. He must have come a long way, he surmised, judging by his heavy breathing. "Are you alright? Some…Something happened, my Lord. The air…it…it's gotten so cold. All the lights went out and the hellions in the dungeons stopped—"

"Kabuto," he commanded, and the lad fell silent. All that could be heard was him catching his breath and the lone fire in its sconce still playing to an invisible beat. Orochimaru rotated his hand palm-down so that the garden snake could slither along his knuckles. "I know what happened. I felt it. Everything is fine."

Kabuto's breath hitched. "Fine? My Lord, the…the Lord of Calamity is awake! Not only that, but she's bloodbound to the jinchuuriki! How are we to proceed with our plans now?"

"We can do without her, my dear boy. The blight belongs to everyone, not just her. After all, it's the gift that keeps on giving." He rotated his hand to the right, and the garden snake followed, eliciting a pleased hiss. "Now go. Tend to the enforcers below and see if they need help putting the dogs back in their cages."

"But—"

" _Now_ , Kabuto." He pinned Kabuto with all the authority and gentle, subtle threat Orochimaru put into it. He watched the boy take a step back, another, heard him murmur an abashed "As you wish, my Lord," and then turn on his heel to leave.

Orochimaru listened for his footsteps to fade, and when he could no longer hear them he breathed a sigh. He set the garden snake on the armrest, made three hand seals, clapped his hands, and spread his arms out side by side. All the sconces burst into flame, bringing light back into the room and the malevolence in the air leap forth into further prominence. He lay his hand palm up on the armrest and the snake crawled back into it, to which he raised and turned his hand this way and that.

So Lord Velvet Crowe was under the Uzumaki vessel's command now, as was the danger of her domain being exploited and sabotaged. That was alright. He didn't need them right away, but their capture would have hastened everything by—he did the calculations in his head…goodness, it would turn this dingy little hideout into a factory in no time flat. Would that raise suspicion? Probably, but the hellion population was going to boom, anyway. What were a few more? If people were smart, and they weren't, they would blame their government and their military for having the nerve of getting infected with the blight instead of the so-called Lords of Calamity (the real Lords that had more than enough malevolence to make a man physically ill and turn in seconds) that were either raising hell in some other country or, if they were lower on the ladder of Lordly power, biding their time for whatever reason only they were privy to.

So, too, would Orochimaru sit for time; after all, who would think to follow him this deep into territory he had established for himself when there were hellions about, and sane ones at that? It would be akin to walking to a public execution. There were hypotheses to form, tests to be enacted, results to be made and answers to be found, and those were more important to spend his time on than watch some idiot get taken in alive or, inevitably but unsurprisingly, get mowed down the first step he took into the wrong part of the Village Hidden by Sound. Appearances had to be accounted for.

"Poor Mizuki," he murmured to the garden snake. "Is it any wonder, in his state, he was struck down by that dreadful claw?" The garden snake blinked at him. "Indeed. I suppose we'll just have to continue with our research." He shrugged nonchalantly. "No great loss."

-

And in the West, here known as Al-Elfydd, far away from the desecrated land bridge, far away from the duchies and elfyddium mines, a man sat on a green hill, facing east. The umbrella that gave him shade was an off-yellow white and had prints of flying fish and fire-breathing dragons. His skin was tanned by countless days being in the sun and his hair was short, slicked back, and the color of puce. His clothes were red inlaid with gold thread and made of the finest silks. His shoes were brown and shined by a young, wire-thin bootblack he had paid three gold pieces to for his outstanding service. Next to him was a picnic basket with packaged fruits, cheeses, and meats he bought at the market. A bottle of port wine sat upright next to him. He dug into his ham and egg sandwich with gusto.

He perked up at the horizon, which was a very pale blue color, suddenly darkened to a sea-deep blue-black in the blink of an eye (such a cliché to use, but oh so appropriate!) and then back to pale again. Even up here on this pleasant little hill he could taste the arctic chill that fragranced the northwest breeze and that reminded him of the incense sticks the clergy lit during each day's sermons. He swallowed his bite and breathed in the wind's scent. It smelled strongly of wildflowers with a hint of wet earth and fungi after a long day's rain, and most everyone would find it unbearable. He did not; there was always something beautiful to be found in life, even in ugliness.

He dusted the crumbs from his hands, grabbed the bottle by the neck, and made a gesture of toasting to the Hidden East. "Thatta girl, Velvet. Give 'em what for! Show 'em what it really means to be alive!" He quaffed the wine, sighed contentedly, and reclined back on one elbow.

Things were going to be so much more exciting now!

-

The boy was out cold, as was the Fox; but children were as foolish as adults claimed they were wise and looked beneath the underneath in their innocence. His coils were running on fumes and she could scarcely tell he was still breathing at all, but he was, and that meant Konoha hadn't exploded into immediate anarchy.

She gazed at him. Aside from his mother's round face and the brands on his cheeks, the boy was a mirror image of his father: tan skin, blonde hair, and, without a doubt, those clear blue eyes. But in that moment, when death was almost certain, they were white and scared and much too large for that round, childish face. Scared not so much of the hellion, but of her.

And wasn't that the same look Laphi wore when he saw she had come to the well, when the night was crimson and the moon bled scarlet shadows across the land? Was that not the same look he wore, when the realization that his sister went from an afterthought to an unknown variable where it concerned the bigger picture? Was that not the same look Innominat had when his mantling came through that emotionless persona and, for a very brief time, let sink the full weight of what _they_ were about to do?

But Artorius was unafraid; in fact, he seemed to welcome it…just as the man who called himself Fourth Hokage claimed his act of sacrifice was for the greater good, that his son would be seen as a hero and that he would be needed in the troubles that were to come. A child of prophecy, he had said, who would bring forth a great revolution to the shinobi world, to hold the fate of it in his hands and bring light back into the darkness…or plunge it deeper into chaos, and Minato was convinced Naruto, with the Fox's chakra at his beck and call, would do the right thing.

_Just as I believe you will, too—_

Velvet looked at the bandaged arm, then down at the boy. She had taken her fill, but it was but one hellion. This one here, with his natural chakra and that of the Fox…they would last her for a very, very long time. All that power in her, combined with the seraphic flame and her blight…it would be so _simple_.

But that would mean starting the whole thing all over again, and wouldn't that defeat the purpose of keeping her alive? Wouldn't that be spitting on Mito's legacy, foolish and brave and impossible without the Silver Flame? What was there to gain from being bound to this stripling of a boy who had yet to soak his hands in the blood of another, who had not yet lived life and may not be able to?

Mito believed she found an answer to the curse and did everything she could to find it. To make it happen.

Kushina…believed it could not be cured, but desired peace for humanity...and for the hellions who had broken her of her misconceptions.

What did this boy have? Nothing. He was a child, and children in this world—just like her own—were prone to be crushed by reality and the darkness she had wrought and left behind.

She thought of another boy: he, too, had the brown eyes and blonde hair of the man who sired and then disowned him, with shades of white marking him as a malak. He had been a tool for the Abbey once upon a time, and she had him dragged onto the Van Eltia for her quest ( _uncaring of the consequences, putting a face on top of the other, that is just like you—_ ), but his time spent among her ragtag group of hellions, humans, and malak had shaped him, made him experience the beauty and horrors of Midgand and Wasteland at large, and helped formulate an answer to solving the world's crisis. To give the world its second chance.

Mito reminded her of Phi just as Phi reminded her of Kushina...and Minato.

_Something must be done._

And done it would be; Velvet sighed and dropped her arm to her side. Got down on her haunches, settled the boy into her arms (he was so light; what was the Hokage feeding him?), and, taking care to not agitate the wound on his side, stood up.

"Drop the boy," said the man, coldly. "Now."

Blood dribbled from the cut down her cheek. She glanced behind her, past the tanto, into the eyeless, bear-shaped mask of the ANBU. His troop were at his back and covered every inch of the area, and when she looked askance in the opposite direction they, too, covered her with their blades and…were those pistols? Did the Hokage actually manage to discover how to create them? It wasn't like she had any need of them, and she knew only one man who walked around with a gun hanging from his hip. It seemed Inomaru took an interest not just in her memories, but her world's weapons and technology as well. The thought of that and these…common foot soldiers thinking they had the upper hand almost made her want to smile.

"And if I don't?" she asked. The sounds of the triggers being cocked were like whip cracks. Bear Mask rumbled discontent and let his blade drop to her neck.

"Lay down your weapons," called a voice, stippled with age but still full of power. "Step aside, Kuroguma."

Kuroguma hesitated, but he drew back and slunk away; he did not sheathe the tanto. The others dropped their pistols but their aim did not waver. Velvet turned around fully in time to see the ANBU part away for the pair of men to walk through. One was tall, wore a red vest over his flak jacket, and had his tawny hair wrapped in a high ponytail. The other was short yet not bent with age, though his face was pockmarked and his eyes still full of a fierce determination, and the red hat of office still hung heavy on his head. His hands were clasped behind his back, and his step was calm and sure when he came to a stop. Yamanaka Inoichi sighed, as though someone had come up behind him and squeezed it out of him, and almost lost his footing, an imperceptible gesture that went unnoticed.

"Lord Hokage," she said, inclining her head.

Hiruzen, too, inclined his head. "Lord Velvet. It has been a while."

"Indeed it has. How long ago has it been, since I've last been outside like this?"

A flash of sobriety, regret, and shame, and then it was gone. "Almost five years. Not much has changed since then…until now." Hiruzen looked at the unconscious Naruto in her arms. "Lord Velvet, might I ask where you are going with the boy?"

"Where else but to the hospital? He's low on chakra and there's a wound on his side that's not healing…but I'm sure you already know that." The Hokage nodded, understanding her message. After all these years, Mito's bauble still had its uses. Were circumstances different, she would have been impressed by how easily magic—no, jutsu—operated in this world. These were mortal men, not malakhim. "The sooner you get him situated, the faster he can recover and be told of his duties."

Now Hiruzen flinched, and his mouth twisted in a frown. "Aye, and I shall, but his health comes first. I will not burden him anymore than what he…already knows. Not all at once."

Velvet shrugged. "Whatever works best for you, Lord Hokage. If you have his room prepared and the staff alerted, then I'll take him there." Malevolence exuded from her like steam from a vent, causing a few ANBU to shout alarm and take up their weapons again. Her bodily form was shifting, breaking apart before their eyes into candle-flicker flames, and so, too, was Naruto discombobulated as the blight thickened and made her a dark whirlwind with a mind of its own. Hiruzen started, but his widened eyes were the only indication.

"Lord Velvet, please wait!" Inoichi called, and the Lord of Calamity shifted back into solidity, as did the boy. "It would be better if I were to take young Naruto instead." He held out his arms.

She arched a brow at him. "I won't hellionize him," she said. "Or the Fox. It's impossible unless he dies or is killed."

"I know, but as you've said, Naruto's chakra is all but exhausted and it needs to be reproduced over time lest your blight overtake him and the beast."

Curiosity graced her features. "Yes," she said slowly, drawing the word out. "If I want to, I could turn him right here and then, couldn't I?" She said it aloud, although it was more to herself than to Inoichi. She saw the color drain from his face and Hiruzen's and could sense more than hear the ANBU at her back raise their pistols at her, aimed at her head.

Two concurrent voices ran through her mind, and Seres listened to them come and go on gilded wings:

One was of the Lord, dark and foreboding, defined by the wolfish undercurrent that had been her Word in the recent past: _I didn't care for this world then. Why should I be beholden to these people now? They spawned their prodigal son, and he forsook them and his child all in the name of the greater good. He was selfish and condemned this boy to a fate he did not ask for, just as Artorius did to you. Fuck them all and fuck this kid, too. For every day you spend looking at his face, you will be reminded of what you were denied._

The second was of the Girl, before she and the Lord had become one and after she had accepted her selfishness. She was a ghost she had once welcomed back after leaving the Earthpulse and left for dead when she had awoken and decimated the westerly front. She was a ghost that wouldn't go away. _The boy needs treatment, you idiot. You may be a monster, but you're also the one thing that's keeping this place and the rest of the world from being hellionized. Just hand him over. They're scared enough of you as it is._

Then a third voice, calm and monotone, and she couldn't be certain if it was her own or Mito's: You need him just as much as he needs you.

_You're wrong,_ said the Lord.

_It's not wrong,_ said the Girl, _but what can he give me in return? What could I give him that I could not for Phi?_

_Velvet,_ Seres ventured, and she had gone on to say more.

There was no need. The conflict lasted but for a few seconds, though it seemed to her to last an eternity.

_An eternity I wish I had—_

"But I won't," said Velvet, and hefted the boy up so that his head lay in the crook of her neck. "You're still looking for your cure, aren't you? And if I should turn him, your research will have been for naught and your... _'prophecy'_ unfulfilled. Am I right, Lord Hokage?" Hiruzen nodded. "Very well. He's all yours, Minder." She passed Naruto off to Inoichi, and as if the mere act of holding him caused the weight of years to slough from the man's shoulders and made him young and hale again. There was also surprise—surprised that she handled the boy gently as a mother would to a child _(Surprised that I'm even capable of being gentle, I'll wager)_ , and the look she gave him made him flush and look at his feet. "Would you rather I keep my distance until he wakens?" she asked Hiruzen.

"No. I will need you there when he does. Although Mizuki was in the wrong, Naruto must understand what his actions have wrought and the responsibility he has been endowed with...although I mean you no offense."

"It could've been worse," she said, and watched as Hiruzen beckoned for Inoichi to move out and for the ANBU to follow (but mind their tools). "We could've been taken to Orochimaru."

"Aye," Hiruzen grumbled grimly. It could've been so much worse.

-

"Naruto…."

"Naruto…."

_Huh?_ He awoke to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling made of dark wood and wooden beams set high above his head. He sniffled and smelled potpourri and pine resin, and as his vision cleared he looked, from the very bottom of his eyes, to see a homely little fire burning in a brick hearth at the other end of the room.

He slowly sat up. He was in a bed much too large for him (and too large for any one adult, he surmised) and covered up to the waist in a thin green sheet. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, paused, and drew his hand back. Someone had taken his jacket off him, and looking down at himself he saw he had a swath of bandages wrapped around his torso. There were spots of blood under his left arm, and he gingerly pressed his fingers to them. The wound didn't flare up; that meant his chakra, and Kurama's, had rejuvenated.

"Ah, you're awake," said a woman's voice, and a shiver slithered along his spine. It reminded him somewhat of Velvet Crowe, only softer. "Well, in a sense. You're still unconscious in the real world."

Naruto looked up and to the right. He was taken aback by just how small this room was, by how peculiar and so unlike his apartment with its plain walls and decades-old griminess he still couldn't wash away no matter how much muscle he put into it, yet none surprised him more than seeing it open up, as though it was a cardboard box that had been left discarded on its side. Kurama sat behind the tall, wide bars that were his prison, the centermost bearing the seal tag that kept him contained therein. He had his head on his front paws, and he picked it up to meet Naruto's gaze. "Kurama…?"

"About time, kid," said the Fox. "We have visitors."

"Vi…visitors? What?"

Kurama chuffed and pointed his snout at the people he seated at the table in front of him. Two of them he recognized after a second's pause, and it would never cease to amaze him how much of a connection he could make, having never personally known them.

One was a woman with violet eyes and red hair that went down past her waist that contrasted nicely with her equally long green dress. Her face lighted upon seeing him, making it soften due to the warmth of her smile…yet there was an old ache there, a deep and maternal regret, and Naruto felt it reflected within himself, just as old and painful, filled with a longing that could never be wholly quenched.

He looked to the man seated across from her, and there was no mistaking the resemblance that had been passed down to him. Perhaps this would be how he would look ten years from now, taller and broad, with sharper cheekbones having long since shed the baby fat of his youth and darker, gold hair spilling onto his shoulders. His white, flame-embroidered cloak lend credence to his name, for it had featured in Naruto's dreams, swimming up to the fore, the kanji for _Fourth Hokage_ blazing red and solar-bright through the nightmilk film of fantasy. He gave the boy a small smile and a wave of a hand.

It was too good to be true. "Mom? Dad?"

"Hello, son," said Kushina, and her smile grew.

It nearly broke him. "But…But how?" he asked, choking back tears. "You're both dead. So…does that mean I'm…?"

"No, Naruto," said Minato, chuckling. "As Lady Seres put it, you are far from it."

He blinked. "Lady…Seres?" He looked to the last person who was at the head of table, in front of Kurama. She was slimmer and shorter than Kushina, and her hair was short and red that faded into blue-white streaks below her ears. Her gown was white, almost gossamer like a wedding dress, that—and Naruto felt both boyish awe and shame for doing so—accentuated her bust and curves ( _Well, she_ is _really pretty,_ he thought, and colored when he remembered where he was and who was with him). Her legs were closed together, offset by a pair of high black boots inlaid in gold. Her hands were folded atop one another; her fingers were long and slender, nails pearlescent half-crescents.

But her eyes—oh, her eyes, they were just like Velvet's, and he reached in vain for a way to describe them. They were like…like…melted gold, or, or wine poured from a flask and the light—artificial or natural—seemed to hit it at just the right angle. But though these eyes were hard (and he was taken aback that a pretty lady, whose first impression told him was some angelic figure who was pure and above such mortal frivolities) they were not _sharp_ like Velvet's, not sharp in the way that would cut him clean and leave him exposed. There was an edge in them, an edge that could only be discovered if turned the right way, and that edge, thank the Sage, was not toward him, his parents, or Kurama.

He let go of a breath he hadn't realized he was holding until now. "H-Hello, Lady Seres," he said, minding his manners. Not so long ago, he would have panicked and given her a silly nickname, like 'strange lady', 'masked woman' or, even worse, a 'manifestation of the Fox', because it was the kitsune who was the trickster, the kitsune that knew how to shapeshift into women and lead others astray. He couldn't quite bow in bed, so he resigned to incline his head at her, recalling lessons and advice the Hokage had given him. "I…I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Um…you can call me Naruto; Uzumaki is my last name. It's a pleasure to meet you." His heart drummed madly in his chest, possible as it was in this…could he call it a dream? Or maybe an episode on that grey border between sleep and wakefulness? Whatever it was, his words (in his ears) sounded awful with all that stuttering and pausing, and so he blushed more and shyly looked away from the eyes on him.

He saw the Lady Seres cock her head curiously and there was a soft, queer cast in her gaze that reminded him of Kushina's when she had looked at him. He thought it out of place on her, for what was there to be sad about when she had just told him he was still alive? Then her face was smooth again, smiling approvingly at his display, and he wondered no more on the implications. "Thank you. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, as well. However, as much as I would like to get to know you more, I'm afraid we're running a little tight on time. You have questions, and we have the answers. Come, sit with us. We will explain as much as we can. Your jacket is on the chair next to you."

Naruto looked to the side and, indeed, his orange jacket was draped over a wooden, high-backed chair that was facing him. He tossed the sheet off him, swung his legs over the bed and put his feet to the floor. He shivered; it seemed even when unconscious, reality maintained some semblance of familiarity. He grabbed the jacket, pulled it on, zipped it up, and took a seat at the table. He sat opposite of Seres and Kurama, with Kushina on his left and Minato on his right. He had not missed the empty chair next to him, the wood warped and pitted with...time? Malevolence? Naruto could not say.

"So, um, what's going on?" he asked. "If my parents are dead, then why are they in Kurama's seal? How are you in here, Miss Seres?"

"We're not really ghosts, Naruto," said Minato. "We are but echoes of the real Minato and Kushina that died that night when the Village was attacked. To put it simply, remnants of chakra we had instilled in you prior to the sealing. They are…not permanent. In time, these will fade away. Even now, our chakra is being used to converse with you."

"How long?" Naruto asked.

"A couple years, at most, depending on what happens to you and Kurama. I'm sorry, Naruto. It was all we could give you in exchange for our sacrifice."

"Oh." He stared at the table, tapping his fingers. So even after all this time, after hearing of the stories of his parents tackling the battlefields of the Third World War and the hellion territories from the Fox, this was but a temporary comfort. It was the pain of knowing that, not the pain of childhood imaginings and questions directed at the Third Hokage, that hurt the most, punching him square in the heart with the force of a sledgehammer. Back then, he had wondered why the old man took a long time to answer, wanting to but unsure how, but he saw the man and woman before him as what they were—not as father and mother, but Hokage and jinchuuriki, and those were his answers. _So that's why you held back,_ he thought, just as he did when he was younger and Kurama was willing enough to be patient with him and let him hear what he wanted to know. He did not hate Lord Third for hesitating, nor was he angry at him. He only wished, vainly, it had been done sooner. "At least you're here," Naruto said, looking up and offering Minato a wan smile.

Minato returned it. "Aye. At least we're here. Now, let's not keep you waiting. You know why we're here, but not the how. As you know, I could not kill the Fox that night…nor could I seal him away. Not completely, that is."

"Yeah." Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "Kurama said that since he's pure chakra, putting him in me all in one go would be too much. You placed one half in me and the other..." He paused, searching. "The other half was ripped away from you before you had a chance to put in yourself."

Minato nodded. "That's right. I had intended to seal Kurama's Yin half into me so that someday you may recover it, to wherever the winds have taken it. You know what Yin and Yang nature transformations are, right?"

"Yeah. Yin is based on spiritual energy, whereas yang is based on physical energy. That's how we use ninjutsu: to think it, we create life. It's how the Sage of Six Paths was able to pass on his teachings and began the era of shinobi."

Kushina looked upon him approvingly. "Naruto, I'm impressed. You're taking your lessons more seriously than, uh, than I did at your age." She chuckled to herself. "I feel bad now! But...I'm glad, Naruto. You're doing good."

Naruto blushed. "Oh. Uh, thanks, mom."

"But anyway," Kushina, getting back on topic. "Normally we had planned to only appear if you had problems with Kurama, ya know. But talk about being full of surprises, Naruto, when I learned from old fuzzball here that you two are getting on pretty well. You really do have it in ya, eh, Kura?"

Kurama huffed and turned up his nose. "I have nothing else better to do, girl. I only do it to pass the time. It's not like he really needs me, and why not, after what you put him through all these years."

Kushina winced. "You know we didn't have a choice, Kurama. It was for—"

"The greater good," Kurama sneered. "Yes. After all, only an Uzumaki may bear the burden of the Fox…and the taint of the Lord of Calamity. A lesser creature would expire or turn into some wailing, mindless hellion knowing only blood and pain of leaving the womb. What was I thinking?"

"Wait," Naruto said, and looked at his parents. "I know why you sealed Kurama into me: because there weren't any other children born during that night." His face grew troubled. "I know you didn't have any bad intentions doing what you did, even though…even though I had to put up with all the crap the Village gave me in return for protecting them from their worst nightmare. But the Lord of Calamity, too?"

Kushina blinked. "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"You woke up Lord Velvet," said Minato. "You were targeted by a hellion and performed the jutsu from the Scroll of Seals you had stolen from the Third Hokage."

"A hellion? What—oh." Naruto slumped against the back of the seat, as if the very floor had been pulled out from under his feet. Everything came rushing back: Master Mizuki telling him the secret to passing the graduation exam that didn't involve Iruka's superiority; breaking into the Hokage's house and slowly easing his way through the halls so the cameras could not see him; reading up on all the forbidden jutsu in the Scroll; Mizuki changing into a hulking beast; the fire under his arm; the blood on his fingertips as he dyed the grass in the shape of the sigil; a wolf made out of gangrenous smoke and the scream that made his heart nearly stop dead as the woman in black devoured him whole with that massive red claw—

"Did I really do that?" Naruto asked Seres. "Did I…actually wake up Velvet Crowe?"

"Yes," she said. "This will be the first time since your mother's death that Velvet has walked the earth without responding to the needs of the Hokage and his people. You have become not only Kurama's Guardian but Velvet's as well. You are the Lord's Keeper."

"The Lord's Keeper…." He rolled the title on his tongue. It weighed thick like molasses and felt as though he was poking at popcorn kernels between his teeth that just wouldn't come loose. "What…What is that?"

"It is a defensive role, neither passive nor aggressive. By being Velvet's Keeper, you are automatically preventing Konoha's hellionization and destruction by taking in her blight. The distance doesn't matter; whether or not you are her side or all the way on the other side of town, you will still absorb vestiges of it, for it is everywhere. The average shinobi can sense malevolence better than those who are not trained in ninjutsu, but it is a sensation that is ephemeral. The best way to describe it would be as though you are being watched, but when you turn around to confront the source there is nothing that indicates anything is there at all. You are a jinchuuriki of the Fox, so it is through him you are able to feel it more than your peers, and with Velvet now active you can see it in its entirety. It is there but not there. Through the Fox, he will take in and consume her blight and thus remain immune to hellionization so long as you are alive and communications with Velvet are neutral at best."

"Communications? You mean if I do her wrong in any way, I'll turn?"

Seres frowned. "No. Velvet is…complicated, but one thing she is not is foolish. You—and by extension, Kurama—are bloodbound to her as she is to you and him due to the jutsu cast in your blood. You take in her blight and she takes in yours through the same method. The process cancels out your hellionization…and her transcendence to true Lordship, as was her peak in the era of Lord Senju Hashirama, but it will not happen unless you perish. The worst her blight can do is agitate; it cannot progress any further than that."

"So I can, say, touch her hand or hair or clothing and it won't do anything to me other than…my body processing malevolence and it being recycled by Kurama, which will filter through him and become…what, exactly?"

"It's an excess element, boy. It doesn't become chakra," said the Fox. "As history as shown, malevolence and chakra can coexist as the sum of a mutual whole. Chakra is life energy, but malevolence is an unnatural occurrence that has seeped into the conduits of the planet. It infects where chakra flourishes and it empowers where chakra stagnates yet the same can be said for the reverse. What I take from the Lord is flushed out of your system and it flows back into the earth, the air, and the sea for it to corrupt again. In return, the Lord absorbs the malevolence and can use it within your presence—and those around you—without penalty. For you, anyway; everyone else will simply have to get a grip on themselves and put up with it."

"So by that logic, would that mean I have a bloodline limit now? At least as far as being…bloodbound to Velvet is concerned?"

"No," said Minato. "Being the Lord's Keeper is not a genetic trait, but it is a unique position in that only the Uzumaki Clan's longevity and stronger resistances to injury and malady can endure the malevolence the Lord exudes without instantly hellionizing."

"Then how does that explain the other Kage and everyone else that have woken her up?" Naruto paused. "Unless they're all…?"

"Some of them _are_ hellions," said Kushina, "but not the Third. Back in my day, and in Lady Mito's, there were specific seals the Uzumaki Clan created at the end of the Spring of Devastation, and these seals were given to the Kage and their constituents under the condition that Velvet should only be called if all other options should be exhausted. According to what she told me, they crafted them in shrines just like the ones you see from the Unforgotten, but with the blessings of the Uzumaki _kami_ , primarily Mushin-no-Shin, who, just like Lord Velvet, was only summoned in times of great need. Anyone that was present at her cell, those not hellionized, and had to make physical interaction with her had to apply these seals before the summoner woke her. These lasted until they had completed their task and put her in the induced sleep, and these were seals inked and blessed from the _kami_ Yugen, Monomane, and Rojaku, who were the triumvirate of enlightenment."

"Unfortunately, these are no longer in production," said Minato, with a slight, sad frown. "It was shortly after your mother immigrated to Konoha that Uzushio fell in the Third World War. Do you know why, Naruto?"

"Because the nations that banded together thought Uzushio had grown too powerful. They feared that with their numbers and mastery in fuinjutsu that they would be conquered." It was but a footnote in the Academy history lessons, and while it was interesting to hear what little information scholars could glean from that event it always left him disquieted by the fact that, so far as he knew, he truly was the last Uzumaki.

"That is one of the reasons, and they were afraid…but it was the fear fueled by gossip and misinformed stories that brought them together. They believed the Uzumaki were purposely endowing their own kinsmen with malevolence, turning them into hellions whose wills were still their own, and with Konoha reawaken the True Lord of Calamity from her bondage. Although their Kage were well aware Velvet had not perished in the Battle of the Valley of the End, their successors and commanders were convinced we would call her to turn the tide of the war and expand her domain."

"And the seals?"

Minato sighed. "Unless the Uzumaki Clan secreted them away in a cache somewhere prior to the assault, all knowledge pertaining to their _kami_ , their blessings, and technology were destroyed and thrown into the sea, never to be reclaimed again."

Naruto dropped his hands into his laps and kneaded them into the fabric of his clothing. He was disheartened, angry, and confused. "But…But the Uzumaki Clan didn't do anything wrong, did they? They couldn't have, because if they did then we'd all be hellions. Who would want to live in a world where your mind is not your own?"

"No, you're right. The Uzumaki did what they thought was necessary."

"Then who's to say the other nations decided to keep that knowledge for themselves and pretend to say they got rid of it?"

"It's…possible, but this was long before your mother and I were old enough to participate in the war. The few times we managed to comb through Uzushio's ruins, we were unable to recover anything of the sort. You may want to ask the Third Hokage, when you are older and more experienced; he has the records of the expeditions he had commissioned and undertaken."

"For once, I agree," said Kurama. "It's a very good thing you are the brains of the family…unlike a certain someone who dared to charge in there unimpeded."

"Hey, big ears, you'd do the same, too, if that was your homeland," said Kushina, pouting.

"Oh, I would have…but then the Lord of Calamity showed up and made quite a spectacular mess of things. Sadly for you, boy, that's going to be a story for another time…and if you play your cards right in this fucked up world, you'll have plenty of it to hear from I and your comrades."

"Language, Kura! He's still a kid."

"Oh pish-posh! He's heard far worse, woman, and he's going to see just as much soon enough. He will have to be made a ninja. There's no way that old monkey is going to keep him under twenty-four-seven watch with a hidden village to run." He licked his lips. "Well, you _could_ …but Velvet is such a fussy bitch, eh, Lady Seres? After all she's been through, do you really think she's going to put up with another blonde-haired brat?"

Naruto glared at him. "Hey, man, I'm not a brat—"

Seres harrumphed. "Funny," she said, looking at the Fox from over her shoulder. "The only bitch I recall running into in the past six decades was you. Shall I regale Naruto with the tale of how the Lord attempted to—"

Naruto saw another thing he had never seen Kurama do: flatten his ears against his skull, and grimacing. "No! Don't you dare! Leave well enough alone! I did what I had to do! These humans didn't act any differently without the curse; they're still savages, some more than others. B-Besides," he huffed, pushing his chest forward, "it's better to be in _here_ than be stuck out _there_. I'm safer that way." He crossed one front paw over the other and averted his gaze. He caught Naruto gawping in the corner of his eye. "Why are you looking at me like that, brat?"

Naruto jumped, startled. "Ah! I-It's just, just, uh…I've never…never seen you so—"

"So _what_?" Kurama growled, resonating from the depths of his throat. The bars amplified his voice, made it loud and emphasized the underlying threat, but it had no effect on the half-cut room they were in.

Naruto licked his lips and pressed them together. "So…I dunno…scared? I mean, I heard you back there, man. You're terrified of Velvet. So am I! I wouldn't want that claw to be the last thing I see in my life, either! But you're a tailed beast; you're three times the size of Hokage Rock! She's, well, not in her prime. I bet you could crush her into paste and eat her malevolence if you could." It was just as he said it that he saw his father wince and his mother grin nervously, shoulders shaking with silent laughter. Kushina opened her mouth, as if to say something, then snapped it shut.

One corner of Seres's lips quirked, and it was gone. She turned to Kurama again, who leaned away from her and turned his head aside, toward the unseen sewers. "It's more than just the claw," he murmured, and even though he said it quietly everyone could still hear it. It was next to impossible for it not to be, given his size. "But I will tell you another time…if you don't push me."

"I'm not like that."

Kurama scoffed.

"What about you, Miss Seres?" Naruto asked, regarding her. "How are you in here? You can't be a tailed beast…unless Kurama knows some sort of ability that can change him into a human form that I'm not aware of."

"I _don't_ , and neither do the others," the Fox said, moodily. "Come on, boy. You're decent for a human, but even if it were possible, I wouldn't go out of my way to change into a woman and seduce you with my wiles for vomit-inducing reasons like love and blind loyalty. I have standards to uphold."

"I can assure you I am not a tailed beast," said Seres, shrugging as she put her back to him. "However, I am not human, either, nor a displacement of the magic you call chakra."

"Then what are you? You look human to me."

Seres smiled. "Oh, the stories I could tell you…but that time is neither nor there. I suppose you could say I, too, am a kami, but where Velvet and I came from, my kind are called malakhim. I am a malak, and due to circumstances beyond our control, this is the life I lead now. As Kurama said, it is better to be in here, in Velvet, but I do not know what effects I will be faced with should I be…released from her."

"So you're dead then," said Naruto. "How did you die, and what do you mean by being released?"

"You're a curious one, aren't you? I only wish we had more time so that I may tell you. I will say that I…went on a quest, so to say, and knew I would not come out of it alive. To that end, I needed Velvet to devour me, and that is what allows her to utilize my heavenly fire."

"Does she know?"

Seres laughed, but it was devoid of humor. "Naruto, I…I have been with her longer than you have been alive. I am sure you have heard the tales of the lands west of here and beyond in the Occident rendered uninhabitable by the blight and scorched by her fire— _my_ fire." Her eyes looked inward, and to Naruto she appeared more tired and far older than she seemed. "Even then, I could do nothing to stop her. At that point, her domain was too great. I could only watch as she…." Seres paused, shook her head. "No, even before she ascended, I, too, shared her anger. I, too, raged against the opportunity taken from me, but soon I realized the error of my folly. How…fruitless it was. I tried to make amends, but it was too late. Only in the years after the Spring of Devastation did I truly allow myself to seek atonement and make her see… _reason_ , even if, in the very beginning, before the madness, her emotions were justified. But no more!" she said, seeing the stunned look on Naruto's face. "I will darken your mood no further, other than to explain the necessary."

"The…the necessary?"

"Velvet has awakened, and another duty that comes with being the Lord's Keeper is providing her with the sustenance she requires to fully function."

"Sustenance?" Naruto paled with horror. "Wait! You mean…?"

"Yes, Naruto. She must consume souls if she is to reap the full benefits of her powers. She cannot slake the demonic hunger with food, for though it may fill her it will not grant her the same energy it does to humans and beasts."

"But I'm not a ninja yet! I haven't even hunted my first hellion! I can't just go beyond the walls and snag one like we do with rabbits and fish and deer! Those things will kill me!"

"That's the difference, Naruto. Most hellions are dumb, mindless creatures. You are not. You have the power to overcome them."

"And the hellions that aren't insane?"

"Will require more than just mere brawn. You have to think. You have to outsmart them, and then they will fall."

"But some of those hellions might've been innocent people! I can't just stick a kunai in them and call it a day!"

"Any hellion, rational or feral, might have been innocent," said Seres. "The same can be said for any shinobi that does not adhere to Konoha's way of life. Rational hellions have their own purposes, their own goals. They may or may not become your enemy, and that is something you must decide for yourself. It is the one thing Velvet cannot enforce upon you."

"They had families!"

" _Had_ , Naruto. Those that succumbed to the curse are no better than cattle to be rounded up and slaughtered. Those that did not either escaped from the asylums or were chased out from their homes. You may be lucky to make an ally out of a hellion, maybe even a friend. You might not and have to dispose of them. Even those whose intentions are good and conflict with yours may be put into consideration. The world is not black or white."

"And if these families find out I killed their son or daughter or…or…I dunno, a parent or cousin? Someone?"

Seres shrugged. "I don't know. The overall public opinion on hellions is not positive. Even if your people were to find out one of your teachers was a hellion, like your Master Mizuki, but was a good person…they will not be kind, but at least they can do something about them. They cannot do the same to you, a vessel for the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, lest they incur their Hokage's wrath. They may thank you for getting rid of a beast they saw as a burden. They may take revenge on you and restore their honor, as some families are built on. Everyone is different."

Naruto clenched his hands into fists. "And say I don't want to kill anyone. Say I dedicate myself to a life of complete pacifism. What then?"

"Then Velvet will deem you unworthy of being her Keeper and hunt on her own. She is a person to be watched and compromised with. She is not an animal you put on a leash."

"Aren't I doing that, though? Aren't I confining her in a way? Even if people can't match what they know from the stories to her face, they're gonna recognize her from her description in the books or from people that were around when the Spring happened. It's not like it happened hundreds of years ago, like with the Sage."

"Your main job is to protect her, Naruto," Kushina said gently.

Naruto threw his hands up in the air. "Protect her from _what_? She's the Lord of Calamity! I bet if she wanted to, she could kill me, eat me, and go on an unstoppable rampage until there's no one left to eat!"

"By protect, she doesn't mean from others," said Minato. "Velvet is formidable on her own even with very little energy in her."

"Then why do I have to protect her if she's so strong?"

"You have to protect her from herself," said Kushina, and her face was hard and serious. "You do have to watch her and you do have to talk with her about what you want to do, but out of everything you are tasked to do, the most important thing is that you have to be there for her." She sighed and clasped her hands together on the table, squeezing them. "It sounds silly, doesn't it? Knowing what we know about Velvet. After all, who in their right mind would forgive a mass murderer? Who would want to see that person be given the right, the privilege, to raise their child and teach them what life has to offer and what it can take away from them when they had done just that in the past? Who would want to see that person on the streets and be friendly with them, after everything she has done? A normal person would rather she be executed, her grave defiled, and her name condemned forever.

"But we're not normal people, Naruto. We're ninja. We're shinobi; we endure the hardships of life and the Curse of Hatred more than others. We are taught from birth to see beneath the underneath. Even so, most of them despise Velvet for what she has done to us, what she almost did to Lord First. There's no denying that they will recognize her from the accounts passed down from their forefathers and shun her…and you, simply by association. They may even try to attack you, thinking your death will weaken her and bring about the opportunity of finally putting an end to her. They are wrong, Naruto, but I can understand why they feel the way they do.

"Were I a lesser person, I would damn Velvet to hell and demand Lady Mito to find another Uzumaki to be her vanguard. But again, I'm not normal. I never was to begin with, and for many years I was terrified of both Kurama and Velvet. They are the faces of destruction, the antithesis of everything we hold dear. They did not have names of their own; we only called them 'monster' and 'demon', and so I called them as such. But do you know what changed, Naruto? Do you know what I did, when I got older?"

"You got to know them."

Kushina smiled. "That's right. Throughout the Third World War and after, I became curious and got to know them. I learned about Kurama and his father and his siblings, his likes and dislikes, his involvement in the Spring, his joys and his fears. And do you know what I did with Velvet? I got to know her," she said, speaking for Naruto. "I got to know not just the Lord of Calamity, but the girl that came before. The girl who was broken by tragedy and reforged in pain and fire and love before she was flung from her world to ours. I got to know her and learned all her secrets, her wants and her desires, even as she threatened to devour me time and time again."

"But she didn't."

"Nope," she said, beaming. "Because, deep down, no matter how much of a cold, tough exterior she puts up, she's soft. Very soft, and softness means being strong and vulnerable. Oh, don't get me wrong, we still had our disagreements, but when we worked together…well, you had to wonder between Minato and I who had the bigger bull's-eye. Velvet is…flawed, but she's a lot more than what you think, and that's what most people fail to understand. Shinobi, too, for all their supposed infallibility, are wont to forget themselves; we're taught the Shinobi Rules from the moment we enroll in the Academy, that we have to 'kill our emotions' in order to see our priorities be accomplished without moral groundings and personal belief interfering. We are also taught them so that we don't lose ourselves to malevolence…but Naruto, the darkness has always been inside us. We were monsters before the malevolence. They may be ignorant, but they don't understand that although Velvet is a hellion, she still retains her emotions. They are wounded, perhaps even scarred, but they are no different from ours. Does that make sense?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I think so…but, Mom, you knew Velvet for, what, a little over ten years? You had time. I just had a couple hours, and all I know about her is that she's fast, she's powerful, she can eat just about anything with that claw, and she terrifies me, Mom. She's supposed to be my…I dunno, my kind-of parental guardian slash mentor and _I'm the one_ that has to teach her? I'm twelve and she's old! I don't wanna come off as being callous, but what makes you and Dad and even Lady Seres think I'm going to get through to her, the Lord of Calamity?"

He had meant to go on, but a hand on his head stopped him, and he looked upon his mother's softening features as she ruffled his hair. "I asked myself the same thing when I was your age. It's not going to be easy. Just being nice isn't going to cut it; you need to find a common ground with her, and that's going to involve plenty of bickering and fisticuffs. There's no way around that. But most of all," she added, "there's only one thing in the world that I believe may give her the balance she needs to be fully absolved of her sins."

"What's that?"

"Love. Love was what Lady Mito gave to Velvet and kept her grounded before the Third World War, and it was that same love she gave to Kurama when the Spring was drawing to a close. Isn't that right, fuzzball?"

Kurama scoffed and shrugged his shoulders. "That wasn't love. It was…a convenient partnership."

"Same thing."

Naruto nibbled his lower lip. "But…that doesn't really answer my question."

"Because you have it in you, Naruto. You have felt the hatred and pain of others directed at you and in yourself. You understand that more than anybody, so, I think, with just the right amount of persistence, you'll be able to earn Velvet's respect and trust. Call it a…mother's intuition." She looked to Seres, and for a brief moment Naruto saw that queer confidence, as though she knew something about the malak woman that he did not.

If Seres was aware, she did not make note of it. "That's just about right, Lady Kushina," she said. "They must be earned, not enforced. Velvet's loyalty lies not with the Leaf or any nation, but to those who can stand with her on equal footing. There is no jutsu or spell in the world that can solve problems with mere talking."

"Think of it as an S-rank mission," said Minato. "Although there is plenty more to be explained about it, for now we want you to focus on getting to know Lord Velvet and obtaining souls."

Naruto reclined in his seat again. He felt ready to pass out, and if it was possible in his mind (and it should be) he would do it in a heartbeat. "So let me get this straight: I have a…somewhat parasitic relation to the Lord of Calamity, the most notable mass murderer and war criminal in the world, who's going to more or less share legal guardianship with a dead _kami_ she herself ate who knows how long ago. Not only do I have to find a way to give her souls to feed her that isn't going to set off some family or nation, my job, above all others, is to _befriend her_. A therion-type hellion who is more demon than me, the so-called Nine-Tailed Fox." Naruto looked at them disbelievingly. "None of you think this is insane?"

"You have my vote," said Kurama.

"Anybody else but him?"

"It does and does not make sense," said Seres, "but it was from Lord Hashirama's mercy and Lady Mito's pity that gave my…no, Velvet a second lease on life when, by all accounts, she should not have. This is the only way she can right her wrongs. It is the only way for all of us to save the world from the ills she and I have wrought, even if most would agree it would be better off if she were dead." She frowned. "They don't realize, Naruto, how better off they are with her _alive_ , for if she had died—" She stopped, blinked. "Ah, I'm afraid our time is up."

"What?" Naruto froze. There were small, strange lights like fireflies floating in front of him and up, up and away, toward the ceiling and passing through it. He followed their trail and yelped when he looked at his hands. They were fading! His hands, his arms, and, looking down, his body. "What's going on?!"

"You're waking up. Not all of your chakra has returned, but it is enough for you and the Fox to be out of immediate danger." Seres heaved a weary sigh and ran a hand through her hair. "To be honest, I was hoping to have this talk when you were older. Your village may see you as an adult, but to me you are just another boy whose plate is piled on so high it's about to topple over. Just another little boy who hasn't found the answer yet."

"An answer to what?"

"Malevolence, Naruto," she said. "Malevolence and peace and everything between that ties them all together."

"I don't understand!"

The pain on her face was as if she had been physically struck. "I know…but maybe, this time around, you'll get lucky. Maybe you won't. I don't know. Only you can decide if it's worth pursuing to the end. Now, young one, it's time to wake up. The Hokage is waiting for you."

"The old man? He's watching me?"

"He has. Go on, Naruto. We will be here if you need us." She craned her head back, and Naruto followed her gaze to the ceiling. The rafters were gone, replaced with a canopy of stars, hundreds of thousands of stars, intertwined with suns and nebulae and galaxies that he could only fathom to reach forth and grasp in palm of his hand. "We will be here for as long as it takes."

"This isn't a goodbye," said Kushina. "Think of it as 'see you later'."

"I don't want to leave! I need to know what the hell's going on! I'm not ready yet!"

"No one ever is," said Minato, and he, too, placed his hand on Naruto's head, "but we will do what we can, and when the day comes when you understand, you will find the answer." He smiled reassuringly. "I know you'll find it."

_How can you be so sure? What if I don't? What if Velvet won't let me find this answer?_

With those words resonating in his head, Naruto woke.

-

He came to, slowly, as though he was being borne up on a dark, watery current rising toward the light on the surface. When he blinked, he saw it was not the sun or the firefly trail of chakra but a pair of blazing fluorescent bulbs. He hissed, turned his head away, and threw a hand up over his face.

"Oh _thank the Sage_ ," said an old male voice, familiar and full of relief. "He's _alive_."

"See? I told you he'd make it through," said another man. This one sounded younger and not so deep, but with a grizzly timbre. "A wound like that wasn't going to keep him down."

A contemplative hum. "Yes, but recuperating his chakra, as well as the Fox's, shouldn't have taken this long."

"Having the blight filter in and out of his body has slowed the healing process, but it's a sign that it is adapting to the changes. It is…good, for a vessel his age. He really is Kushina's son," said a woman. Young, deep, svelte, with a hint of…not disdain, but detachment? It was the kind of clinical tone the Aburame Clan spoke in; it may as well be the _only_ tone they spoke in.

Wait, did she say Kushina?

Naruto sat up, one hand clutching the sheet so hard his knuckles whitened, the other probing the wound underneath the pale green hospital shirt he had been changed into. The bandages were gone. His fingers darted underneath and felt around. The skin there was smooth. Where did they…?

_Idiot, you can't get scars,_ said Kurama. _I can regenerate, remember? Or were you so bedazzled by the Lord's curves they fried your brains?_

All Naruto managed was a dumb "Huh?" Not a petulant, defiant "Shut up, I knew that! The regen, I mean!" Just _huh_ , and then _The Lord?_ He looked to his left, and nothing was there. Lord Hokage and Mister Yamanaka ( _What's Ino's dad doing here?_ ) were in front of him and there was no one else behind them, so that left with him looking to his right.

His mouth went dry and the blood in his veins turned to ice.

Velvet Crowe stared back at him. Her arms were folded across her chest and one leg was draped over the other. The air around her was like a heat haze, refracting and folding on itself simultaneously, as though the lights above couldn't figure out how to capture her in her entirety. But by the Sage, those eyes—this must be what the adage meant when the abyss stares back at you. He didn't have to think about reaching rock-bottom; she already had him right where she would want him, at any given time, whenever she felt like it. If Seres's gaze could cut with the right angle, then Velvet's could consume him, whole and raw.

But there was nothing fiery or monstrous in that gaze. She simply looked at him as one would study a lab rat. "Welcome back," she said.

Naruto opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and closed it once more. "Um…uh…good, uh, morning, Lord—"

"Velvet," she amended. "Just…Velvet. And it's evening."

"Evening? But I thought it was…."

"You've been out almost the whole day, Naruto," said Inoichi. "You're in Konoha General Hospital. You were attacked by a hellion."

That was right. It hadn't been a dream then, and everything started coming back in bits and pieces. "You mean I was attacked by…by Master Mizuki."

Inoichi grimaced. "Y-Yeah…but he's been…dealt with." He glanced at Velvet, who returned his discomfort with that same passive expression. "How do you feel, Naruto?"

Naruto thought it over, and shrugged. "I don't know. I…guess I feel fine. A little tired, but…I'm not aching or anything. I can sense my chakra again, so that's a good thing."

"And the Fox's," said Lord Hokage.

Naruto paused, shocked, but nodded. "And the Fox's," he repeated.

"How long?" the old man asked.

"How long what?"

"How long have you known about the Fox?"

"Kurama," he corrected him as politely as he could. "His name's Kurama."

"Fine then. How long have you known about Kurama?"

"About four years. Going on five soon. I…used to think the talks were dreams, but…they were and they weren't, if that makes sense." Naruto looked down at the bedspread, fingers kneading it. He couldn't bear to meet the old man's gaze, curious and wanting and so suspicious. "He told me what he remembered about my birth. About my parents…what they did in the war." He swallowed thickly. "About hellions and malevolence and…and the Lord of Calamity. They were so…interesting, ya know? You told me about 'em, too, before I moved out of the orphanage, so with you and him I…I wanted to know more, so I started paying more attention in class, read a lot of books and studied and did my homework, and, well…." He shrugged again and let the sentence linger unfinished, hoping he and Mister Yamanaka understood.

They did, and Hiruzen sighed, a long, slow, tired sigh, looking much older than his age belied.

"Old man?" Naruto asked, uncaring of the fact he was foregoing formalities. "You're, um, not mad, are you? About the Scroll—"

"Naruto. Look at me," he commanded softly, and Naruto did. There were bags and dark shadows discoloring the skin around his eyes, but that edge was there, not so bright as it was in his youth but still just as hard and arctic like the snowcaps of mountains. His frown was severe and dimpled the corners of his lips. "'Mad' doesn't began to describe what I'm feeling right now. I'm disappointed in you. Though you did not know of the role Mizuki played in all this, you listened to him based on the assumption that you would get a free pass from the Academy. It does not, Naruto. Trespassing onto my private property and stealing a precious artifact dating back to the time of the First Hokage does not entitle you to becoming a shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Once your grades have been finalized and a mutual consensus has been decided among the school faculty, _that is it_. You are more than welcome to try again next semester. That applies to everyone, even you…but after what you did, after what you put my soldiers, what you put Master Iruka, through, to protect you, the Scroll, and this entire Village from a malevolent outbreak, I don't think I should give you that second chance. Period. Your status as Lord Fourth's son does not matter. Your status as the Fox's jailer does not matter. Your status as a citizen of Konoha _does_ , and I would do the same even if you were not related to Lord Fourth or were not the Fox's jailer. I would do the same to anyone. What I say goes, and it is within my power to make sure you are banned from all local and national forces permanently, for the rest of your life, as punishment for your actions.

"But…none of that matters now," he added, and all the anger sloughed away. "What does is that you're safe and sound, and far as I'm concerned that's all that matters. The Scroll is important, but make no mistake, it cannot compare to you; it cannot compare to anyone, those that lead the way into the future and those that are weak and cannot protect themselves. You are part of the family I must protect, who I must guide until you are ready to face the world on your own two feet. If I should hold you back because of your foolishness, it would not solve anything." He sighed again and let his hands fall to his sides. "I had hoped to have approached you into being the Keeper when you were older, but…I think this is…punishment enough. I mean you no offense, Lord Velvet." He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

She shrugged noncommittally. "None taken. But you will have to make him into one of your…soldiers." Her lips twisted distastefully. "Your people will know of my wakening soon enough. Keeping him under your watchful eye because of it will only hinder him."

"She's got a point there, Lord Hokage," said Inoichi. "Even if she were to hide from everyone, they're going to tell something strange is afoot. People may be ignorant, but they're not that stupid. Transformation jutsu won't do any good, either; the blight will give her away."

"And you need to feed," said Hiruzen. "One soul is not enough, is it?"

"That depends. Eating chakra is like drinking a glass of water that is half-full or half-empty. This one will tide me over for a while."

Hiruzen pursed his lips. "We'll find a way."

"You mean the boy will." Velvet leveled a stare at Naruto. "The Guard were my Eyes, and you were the Hand That Calls. You served only to be my interim between the Keeper's death and now. That time is come to an end. All you can do now is elect the elite ninja that will give him the necessary tools and education in dealing with arable corruption and hellions that will no doubt come crawling out of the woodwork."

"And what about you?" Inoichi asked.

"Me? I'm going to hunt. I'm not going to wait for the boy to say when it's alright to feed. You locked me away for good reason. That is more than enough."

"And the curse?"

"I've told you before, there's nothing we can do about it. You have the answers, Minder, but not the means to reach them. You're just going to have to make do with what you have and hope for the best."

"I know," he said, nodding. "What will you do with Naruto?"

"Him?" Velvet looked at him again, appraised him. "By law, he'll be made an adult when his name is put into the registry. He's not my responsibility. I've already shown him what to do to survive. What happens next is up to him."

"I really don't know what's going on," said Naruto, and he didn't. All of this information—about Lady Seres, Keepers, Minders, soul management, his parents' chakra echoes and the Uzumaki Clan, and seeing Velvet Crowe in the flesh—was too much for him. It made his head hurt, and that made him angry. "But let's get one thing straight, lady, just for future reference. My name's not _Boy_. It's _Naruto—Uzumaki Naruto_ , and I'm your Keeper. Not my mom, not Lady Mito. _Me_ , so if you want to stick around long enough to be proven wrong, you better get used to it and remember my name, 'cause I'm gonna be future Hokage someday, and that means you're gonna notice me. You're not just gonna do whatever you feel like just because I'm a kid and don't have any experience yet, so if I say you're not gonna eat that person for whatever reason, I'm goin' to say you're not gonna eat that person. You might be old, _really old_ , but there are rules, and there are some rules you _just can't break_. If you have a problem and I have a problem, you and I are gonna talk it over—like _adults_ —and then we'll settle on somethin' that works out as fine as we can make it. Got it, granny?" By the time he was finished, he had his index finger out and pointed, waggling, at the Lord of Calamity.

Hiruzen and Inoichi looked at him with eyes blown open.

So did Velvet. She looked at his finger (almost cross-eyed, and if Naruto wasn't feeling so riled up he would've laughed in her face), looked at the stern look Naruto was giving her, back at his finger, and back at him again. He saw her lips move, speaking words without voice. He couldn't tell what she was saying.

Then she _grinned_ , leaned back in her chair, and laughed: a low, lupine, _girlish_ rumble rising deep within her chest. His jaw dropped. "You're really something else, aren't you?" she said, and when she turned away the disinterest slid back into place. "I'm going to hunt," she told the Hokage and the Minder. "You may want to remind Naruto here of his duties, unless the dreamwalk proved malleable."

"Hey, wait!" Naruto called, and reached out for her. It was a futile, useless gesture, for she collapsed into malevolence like a burst of jutsu smoke. He whipped his head to the older men, panicked. "She's not gonna—"

"No," said Inoichi. "She won't go very far, nor will she feast on regular humans."

"How do you know?"

"I've…associated with her for a time. I know a few places she's known to haunt. As long as she doesn't go overboard with reducing population numbers, she'll manage just fine."

"You sure?"

"Positive. Lord Hokage, if you don't mind, I'd like to stay with Naruto for a bit. I'm sure you have some business to take care, so I can fill in the blanks for you while you attend to them."

"Please do. I would be most grateful," said Hiruzen. His attention was on the empty chair. "You did well, Inoichi. Go home and get some rest when you're finished. When I have everything together and make the arrangements, I will call for you."

Inoichi bowed low. "Thank you, My Lord."

"Naruto," he said, and the boy straightened up. "I expect to see you in my office tomorrow morning, where you will fill out the paperwork so that you will enter into the ninja registration system. Team placements will be announced the following day. Do I make myself clear?"

Naruto nodded dumbly. "Y-Yes, sir."

"Good. I wish you both good night." Hiruzen tucked his hands into the folds of his sleeves and walked to the door. "Oh, one more thing, Inoichi," he said, stopping by the doorjamb. He turned around. "Don't forget what we talked about earlier. I would appreciate it if you do it as soon as possible."

This caught Inoichi off guard, and Naruto saw the dread and anxiety shift across his face until it settled into passivity. "I-I will, Lord Hokage. I won't forget. Have a good night." When the Hokage was out the door and well out of earshot, the man heaved a loud sigh of relief and turned around, giving Naruto a tight smile. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you have everything under control. I don't think she expected you to take the reins that quickly."

"Let's be real here, Mister Yamanaka: I have no idea what I'm doing," Naruto said, slouching over. "I just had this…I dunno, I guess you can call it a dream, where I talked to my parents' ghosts that weren't really ghosts and this spirit lady who actually _is_ dead (but sorta alive?) and they told all me sorts of things that I don't think I can remember them now but one of them was about _Velvet_ ," he emphasized clearly, "and so far I'm torn between blowing her off just to feel good about myself and trying to do my damnedest to give her a chance and be friends or partners or something and Mister Yamanaka, I am way, way in over my head right now." He sighed explosively. "I know what I did was wrong, part of it's my fault for waking her up so soon…but I wanna try an' make this work somehow, ya know? I just…don't know what to do with all this." He spread his arms wide, a picture of boyish helplessness.

Inoichi chuckled, his smile turning commiserative. "I know the feeling. I was the same way when I was made the Lord's Minder many years ago. Lord Velvet is…a lot of things, and a lot of who she is, what she is, and what ties into her will take more than one day to get through and make sense of. What do you remember from your dreamwalk, Naruto?"

"By 'dreamwalk', you mean my conversation with Lady Seres and my parents' chakra?"

"Well, dreamwalk can be best described as a really deep daydream…but, yeah, we can go with that." He seemed to want to say more ( _Probably something to do with what I just said about my parents,_ Naruto thought), but he didn't press it, and Naruto was thankful for it.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know where to start. There's just so much."

Inoichi pulled a chair from the wall, plopped it down back first against the foot of the bed, and sat down. "Well, why don't you tell me what's egging you the most?"

"Out of everything I remember?"

"That's right."

"Okay. Why did Velvet call you Minder? There's gotta be more to that than her maybe knowing about those freaky jutsu you use."

"Now I'll have you know, those freaky jutsu have saved my life on more than one occasion!" said Inoichi, grinning. "But you're right," he added, serious. "There's more to it than that. I'm sure Ino's told you I'm head of the Analysis Team that's part of the Konohagakure Intelligence Division."

"Um…kind of," Naruto admitted. In fact, Ino, much like the rest of his classmates, didn't start to take him more seriously until he took his grades and schoolwork just as much. By then, he went from being called 'dead last' and 'class clown' to merely 'bookworm', and little by little did he get to make some decent small talk with them. "But she said you're a really cool guy."

"Of course I am! But that's beside the point. My job is to interrogate prisoners and persons of interest that are involved in criminal cases. Sometimes those cases are more severe, and when they prove unwilling to cooperate I have to step in and…convince them to divulge that information."

"You mean you torture them."

Inoichi grimaced. "Well, no. That's more Torture and Interrogation's duty. I use my jutsu to get through to them and take what I need as evidence to be recorded and supplied to my superiors. I do…did…the same thing with Lord Velvet for seventeen years."

"That long? What were you doing?"

"Ah…a lot of that information's classified, Naruto. Until the Hokage gives me express permission to declassify them to you, I'm afraid there's…very little I can tell you. I'm sorry."

"Well…is there anything you can tell me? For starters?"

Inoichi propped his chin on his crossed his arms and hummed, lower lip jutting out, shoulders rising and falling. "I think I can tell you about my sessions with Lord Velvet…our talks…and…hmm, I guess as far as development toward anti-malevolence spells are concerned would be okay…but everything else I'd have to run by the Hokage, just to be sure. Is that okay? How's that sound?"

"Works for me."

_You mean 'whatever's easiest for me to grasp so my brain doesn't short-circuit',_ Kurama groused. _I can tell you just as much if not more than that scruffy boar…but for once I agree with the malak; one thing at a time. I can't have you dying an early death from information overload._

_Be quiet and pay attention so I don't forget when I write all this down later!_ An image of the Fox with his head between his paws and rolling his eyes flashed through his mind, and then it was just him, Mister Yamanaka, and the beginnings of a very, very long night.

-

But Velvet didn't hunt. Hunting was the furthest thing from her mind.

She reappeared on top of the hospital roof and walked to the edge, in the face of the breeze. The blight from her transit lingered and coalesced into the shape of the dragonhide wolf, and it followed her at its heel, tail low but straight, wagging slowly. They stopped as one, and the beast raised its head and sniffed the air. It opened its mouth and let its tongue loll over the side, ears flexing.

Velvet stared ahead. Not much had changed in the five years she had been on the surface. There were a couple new buildings she didn't recognize (Intelligence Division Headquarters was large and imposing that could be seen from all angles, and it served as a symbolic bulwark against the darkness that haunted this land), but the Uchiha flag no longer flew beneath the banner of Konoha, and the red and white fan of Madara's kith and kin that had been emblazoned on the front tower of Military Police HQ had been removed. It made sense, given the suspicions the villagefolk held toward the Uchiha, and the paranoia and confusion that had broken out in lieu of their paragon's madness.

They had never caught the boy, their shining beacon. That did not surprise her; she had arrived just as the chaos died down. What did, though, was that the Uchiha—whoever remained—still persisted and stood their ground in Konoha. It was…admirable of them. Relations must not be too strained, if the Uchiha that stayed behind here were wont to forgive (but not forget) and move on.

_I wish Aball had done the same—_

"Hush," she told the wolf, softly, and cast a sidelong eye at it. The wolf clamped its jaws shut and stared back, challenging her.

She harrumphed and turned away from the building and her mind from the Uchiha; so did the wolf. They looked toward the star-speckled sky. Her breath hitched. The wolf wagged its tail. It never ceased to amaze her how there was no difference between the ones back home and the ones here, yet the constellations had different shapes and names that Lady Mito had pointed out to her _("My elders always used to scold me and say I should never point at them because it's bad luck, but I thought it so absurd. We're men, Velvet, not gods. All the old jutsu that could bring down the stars and the moon and move mountains with the flick of a wrist went with the Sage, a long time ago.")_ : here was Inari Okami, jumping in the air, and although the majority of the Elemental Nations saw them as a male fox spirit, they were viewed as a female _kami_ who could change into a water serpent with ease in Uzushio (for she dwelt in the cool dark of the sea, never in the shallows of the rivers), and it was from her she taught the people how to plant rice and cultivate the sheaves to brew tea and sake; over there was Suzaku and the seven stars that formed the peaks of its mansions, and legend says it was from beholding the shape of its wings folded protectively over its houses that Hashirama was inspired and would go on to create the Will of Fire; and over there, at the apex of the heavens, was—

She blinked, and she was in the past - a very distant past, it seemed like. Standing on a hill on the edge of town, dressed not in black but in rustic brown. There is a man at her side, older, taller. His left side blending in with the soft blue-black gloom, his right accentuated by the full radiance of the stars. The stars are open to them, wide and far so as to be like dust on an old crown. He is here only for this one day before he leaves and continues his journey, and after seeing the medication takes its hold on Laphi and puts him to sleep, the man calls for her to join him on a walk. He is not sure when he will be back again. He is almost certain it will be another few months before he is able to get away from the Abbey, but he wants to see this place with fresh, clear eyes one more time, one more time before he turns in and departs in the morning. She goes with him, already feeling the void of his absence taking root, but she pushes it down (always has during these moments), eager to keep him, his words, his white-gold clothing, in her memory. Seared in it, like an eternal flame.

A snippet of conversation comes to her, in media res, but it does not dumbfound her. It is a part of her - she knows it well (too well) as much as she knows how to breathe; and it occurs as though at the very back of her mind, their words ring clear above the haze, part through the malevolence, bypass the bitterness nestled and buried deep like a bloated tick.

He asks: _"Tell me something: What is it that you dream of the most?"_

She says: _"What I dream of? Well, I dream of you and Laphi and Niko." A pause, then, "Sometimes I dream about Celica. I dream about us, just…living our days out together."_

He laughs: _"I am glad to hear we're always at the center of attention. What I meant to say was, what do you dream of? What do you aspire to be?"_

She says: _"What do I want to be?"_ She thinks. _"I always wanted to see the world. With Laphi, you know? When he gets better. We'd go, I dunno, anywhere. Anywhere that has ruins. We'd learn about the past together and make some discoveries that might have been buried away for ages, forgotten by time."_

He nods: _"Yes. That is a very good dream to have. You could certainly reach it, if you try."_

She says: _"And…"_

He looks to her: _"And…?"_

She fidgets, tries to find the right words: _"And…I want to protect my family. I'm learning from you, and I appreciate that, but…but I want to know more! I want the knowledge, Arthur. I want the strength to protect Laphi and Niko and everyone here in Aball when you're gone."_

He says: _"You mean you want to be an exorcist. Is that right?"_

She colors: _"W-Well…"_

He smiles, pats her on the head: _"Velvet, I've taught you as much as I can, and that is more than enough. You don't want to be like the stars, do you?"_ He gestures to the sky.

She says: _"But the stars are always moving, aren't they? We just can't see them."_

He says: _"Perhaps, but it doesn't matter if you have a little strength or a lot of it. No matter how much you have, if you don't know when to stop then you will end up lost and go over the horizon."_

She says: _"But the stars always come back. Every night."_

He says: _"Yes, but they're just stars. People, Velvet, are another thing, and I'd rather you keep your head on straight than have it filled with ludicrous ideas and have it float away. Go for something that you can achieve. Just remember to look straight ahead. Never keep your eyes off the road longer than you have to. Think of it as another maxim to live by."_

_Why?_ she thought, blinking again. _Why am I thinking this now? The past is the past. It's over and done with._

_Done, but not forgotten,_ said Seres, and behind the veil of reality she saw the malak reclining in the chair, head tilted back toward the star-crusted ceiling of the House In-Between. She sounded tired and faraway.

_No. It's not,_ Velvet agreed. _I know why, but—_

She blinked, and then she was back in the present. The wolf was bumping its snout against her hip, to which she gently brushed a hand between its ears and eased it away. Her attention returned to the constellation, studied it. "That's right…That's the…."

"The Shepherd's Crook, said to have been wielded by the Sage of Six Paths Himself when he made his journey from West to East, spreading the teachings of chakra and ninjutsu."

Velvet turned around slowly, the wolf dissipating. Sarutobi Hiruzen came up behind her, hands clasped behind his back. "I thought you were hunting," he had said, not unkindly. "But why rush? The night is young. We must enjoy what peace there is to be had." He went to stand next to her, opposite of where the blight beast had been. "I see your love for the land has not deserted you."

She sniffed. "I'm not lollygagging. I'm scoping the area for hellions. I don't have to search very far to tell where they roam."

He made an inquisitive sound. "Ah. That makes sense. Your eyes are much better than mine."

"Who said I'm using my eyes?"

Hiruzen smirked. "That's right. I had forgotten you were a walking Far Sight jutsu. That is going to be a very handy thing to have in the near future."

"Mmmm. Now tell me why you're really here."

"Oh? You don't wish for my company?"

"Sarutobi, I know for a fact that whenever there's a ninja going around making small talk, it usually means they have an ulterior motive. You didn't come out here to stargaze. There are more important things to worry about."

"Yes. There are." He looked at her.

She did not return it. "So…which is it?"

"There are plenty of things going through my mind this night, things I have had to wrestle with since before your awakening. The fact that Orochimaru had his eyes on the Scroll, on you…I shudder to think of the implications of what would happen if Naruto had not stolen it."

"The changeling was a zealot with a one-tracked mind whose only folly was not keeping his damn mouth shut. The other plays at being god and thinks himself a Lord above Lords." She sneered. "One of these days, he's going to fuck up and that'll be the end of him. If not by your hand then by his own and we'll all pretend it was a tragic accident."

"Aye, I think the same. However, Orochimaru is too self-aware of the consequences. To accidentally bring more blight upon himself would be the height of stupidity for one of his caliber."

"No one stands on top of the food chain. Not for long." She remembered, even now, the dull, starburst ache of pure agony of Hashirama's chakra negating the blight. How the ghost of his palm blasted the full brunt of it into her, through her, through Seres, through the scar of earth that history would later be called the Valley of the End. She remembered the sensation of _otherness_ guiding his hand.

"Indeed. But even the mightiest predator can fall, if it is not careful."

"Something needs to be done with him. The time for redemption has long since passed." She slashed her bandaged arm through the air, creating a harsh whistle. "When you find him, kill him and burn his corpse. But keep his research. There may be something in that vile filth that may prove beneficial to your cause."

" _If_ we can catch him unawares. If he has to, he will destroy it. I would rather see the records of the atrocities he has conducted in the name of science to never see the light of day again than have to hold it in my hands."

"Would you rather see it in someone else's?"

"After what I have seen, I would not have it in anyone's hands at all. Knowledge is power, but some of it should be best left alone. I find it hard to believe there can be any good within those records…if there are any at all."

"There will be," she hissed. "Snakes can't cover their tracks, and though they may hide they cannot stay in the dark forever. Even they must go and risk their lives to feed. You just have to catch him at the right time at the right place."

"Aye. With these recent events, I'm going to try to get in touch with Jiraiya and his network." Velvet made a disinterested, little sound at the Sannin's name, but stayed quiet. "I want to investigate all possible leads, narrow them down, and stay on his trail until there's nowhere left to run. The sooner I can catch him, the sooner I can put an end to him…before he makes the first move."

"A sound plan, but take care not to draw too much attention. You don't want him running off again like last time."

"No," said Sarutobi, face hardening. "That was my mistake, and when I see him again I will not dare repeat it. May the Sage smite me where I stand if this old heart cannot shroud itself in darkness."

"So long as you are aware of your actions and your convictions are true, you will not fall to it. After all, truth and acceptance are the two bastions that protect you. It would be a shame if the Supreme Shinobi were to forego even that and lose sight of himself."

Hiruzen smiled grimly. "I know, but it's as you said: even gods may fall." Then it became softer, and he began to chuckle.

Velvet balked at him. "What's so funny? This is serious."

"No, no, it's not about that. I am past that now, for the time being."

"Then what is it?" she grumbled.

"I was just thinking how very helpful you are. I used to think Inoichi had spent a little too much time in the Maw, hearing him talk about all the sessions you've had when you weren't being stubborn."

"No one likes having their mind probed for information they don't want to give out willingly."

"True, but you relented in the end—peacefully, I should say."

"He was starting to annoy me. I figured by doing so it would at least shut him up and get him on with his business."

"It goes a long way."

"To what ends? You don't have the Silver Flame…and even back home, it didn't accomplish much." She recalled the attempt Phi had made to cleanse Aifread and Rokurou of their malevolence, how he had channeled it and cast it upon them. Two separate occasions at two different points in time, and it had resulted in the former dying, unchanged but himself again, and the latter as he was: accepting of his daemon nature, and the Flame could not wash him of that. "You are expecting a miracle where there is none."

"Perhaps, but anything is possible if it means being one step closer to achieving it, no? Some diseases have taken just as long if not more time before a cure was developed and mass produced."

"You speak of illnesses that can countered with medication over a period of time. The daemonblight is a curse, but it's also…." She waved a hand in the air, searching. It was on the tip of her tongue, a memory just out of reach that had sat in the back of her mind but had brushed aside because Artorius and Innominat were more important, she wanted nothing more to do with Wasteland and its problems after everything they had put her through.

_After what_ I _have done—_

What was it?

_Seres?_ She asked.

_I know what you speak of,_ said the malak. _It's…there, but…_

_But what?_

Seres did not say. Her silence was shameful but apologetic. Velvet didn't push it.

_It'll come back to you,_ said the Girl. Give it time.

Velvet twisted her lips in a frown. Time, she said, and she was both Girl and Lord. _Time is all I'll ever have. It is the one constant that can't be taken from me._

"Now it is my turn to ask what troubles you," said Sarutobi.

"Nothing," she said, neutral.

"That is not the face of a person who has nothing on their mind."

"Nothing you would understand."

"Is it about Naruto?"

Far from it, but she couldn't think of the answer and decided it would be best for both of them to turn away from it (for now) and humor him. "What about him?"

He gave her a small, cheeky smile. "You like him already, don't you? He's just like Kushina."

That elicited a single, rough bark of laughter. "Get real, old man. He's nothing like her. He preens and struts like a peacock with its feathers on full display. 'Future Hokage'? That's big talk coming from a runt! Next thing I know, he'll be saying he'll want to be the Feudal Lord of the Elemental Nations or even Emperor of the West!"

Sarutobi nodded solemnly. "Aye. Those are very big shoes to fill."

"And he gets off on calling me 'granny'? I've heard better comebacks from Kushina! And Mito didn't stoop to such juvenile levels to get her point across! Mito would let you know when she wanted to be heard. That was when you stopped what you were doing and _listened_. That boy, Naruto? He's all bark and no bite."

" _For now._ "

"He doesn't know anything about me."

"Oh, he's heard plenty of stories about you. It was one of the only things that made him stay put in class."

"But he _doesn't know me_. He's just a kid with a dream that may never come true and has no idea what he's in for." She faced Sarutobi. "Is that the kind of Keeper I'm going to be working with? Is that someone I can expect to understand and have the answer to all the problems that plagued this world, even before I added onto them? Because so far my first impressions of him aren't that great."

"You must give him time, Lord Velvet. You cannot expect him to learn everything all in one day."

"It has to be soon. This world is not kind."

"If you let it be that way. This world is dark, yes, but it is not without light. There is still goodness to be found and made: from people, from beasts…even hellions."

"And yet you still send your child soldiers out to fight for your cause," she snarled. "You still stain your lands red with their blood over petty squabbles, lands up for grabs and power vacuums that must be filled with steel and blight instead of making palaver."

Sarutobi's brow pinched. "That is the one thing I could not change. No matter how hard I tried to make the people see reason, no matter how many laws I put before my Council, they would always reject them. 'We need the resources to become greater than we are now,' they would say. 'We need all the manpower at our disposal to bring our enemies to their knees.' 'We need every able-bodied man and woman to do their part in providing children for the future of Konohagakure.' And the civilians, Lord Velvet, they get mad at me, as though they think I want children who are just learning how to walk in and out the Academy doors with kunai in their hands or an ANBU mask covering their eyes. They think I have the final say in everything when in truth I do not. The feudal lord overrules me, and it was during wartime that allowed children to be sent into battlefields."

"And carted back home in body bags, given _full honors_."

Sarutobi closed his eyes and sighed. "I am not proud of those decisions. War does not like to deal in middle grounds, only in absolutes. It was why I was hoping to detain Mizuki with the Scroll in his possession. Naruto was an unexpected variable, and any hope of obtaining information on Orochimaru's whereabouts was gone."

"That gamble could've gone south."

"Yes, it could've. It was a very dangerous ploy to make, but if I had to do it again I would. My only regret is that Naruto had to get involved. I had meant to tell him about you when I deemed him ready, but from what I gathered it would seem Lady Seres has gone ahead and beat me to it. With Inoichi filling him in—and with plenty of time—I believe Naruto will be capable of fulfilling the role of Lord's Keeper and find the answer you are looking for."

"Will he? Will he really?"

"For all his faults, you underestimate Naruto, Lord Velvet. He is young, but he has potential. With the right teaching, he will grow into his own person. He will form his own creed, whether it is molded and shaped from Master Iruka, his squad captain, his role models…even you."

"I already told you—"

"He's not your responsibility. I heard you…and you're right; by Konoha law he cannot be forced to do something he is comfortable with unless it's mandatory. But must you be so harsh with him? There is a time for that hand to be firm, yes, but there is also a time for that hand to be gentle. Minato and Kushina are gone, and though I am able to provide for him I cannot replace what has been lost. He needs guidance more than anything, and I think you, Velvet Crowe, are the only one who can give him that. You, who can balance the darkness of the world with the light of humanity. You, who can show him that not all who wander are lost."

Velvet cracked a crooked grin and shook her head, trying not to laugh. Instead she stretched up on the balls of her feet, rolled her shoulders back and limbered her neck, relishing the gunshot blasts of loosening kinks. The ache had settled deep in her bones, but she was awake, fully awake and fully alert in nearly thirteen years, and the embers in her arm—that had once been warmed by Mizuki's chakra—were dim and would soon grow cold.

She came back down, but her grin had softened to a small, mirthless smile. "You trust me, the Lord of Calamity, to raise a kid and teach him right from wrong? You trust me— _me!_ —to bring balance? Of all the people in Konoha, you…." Velvet paused. The smile was gone. "You've finally gone senile."

"Aye. I guess I did, but this old soul still has some fire left in him, no matter how much he wants to extinguish it sometimes. There's always something that keeps it burning bright even as the shadows draw close."

Velvet didn't speak. The breeze riffled through the Hokage's robes and it swept past the Lord's tattered coat, shook her bandages, and brushed the hair from her eyes. She did not react, but Sarutobi did not study her, his focus on the Village. The stars. The moon.

"If he's willing, then I will teach him," she said, after a while. Sarutobi perked up. "I will show him what he needs to and what has to be done. I will tell him what he wants to hear and what he shouldn't. I will give him the same treatment I have given to Kushina. He will either learn and grow, or go astray and die in ignorance…in which case, you will have to reach out to the Uzumaki and secure another Keeper."

"That's impossible," said Sarutobi. "The seals that bound you to Point Zero were single-use only. The ones we used five years ago contained the last vestige of Mushin-no-Shin's blessings."

"And the suppression seals?"

"Low," he said, after a long beat. "Very low. With what little writings we have gleaned from Lord First and Lady Mito, the Minders, and the Unforgotten, we should be able to manufacture a large quantity for all stable soldiers and constituents in Konohagakure by the end of the year…should the odds prove to our favor, that is. For each outbreak that occurs somewhere in Fire Country, the Anti-Malevolence Development will be pushed back. I cannot give you an estimate as to how long it would take if they are hampered."

Velvet dipped her head. "Then for your sake, you had better hope Naruto makes the right decisions."

Silence descended again, and so did the night wane.

"There is one more thing I must ask of you, Lord Velvet, before I part," said the Hokage, gravely.

"You mean request from me."

"Yes." He grimaced. "Mizuki's soul…I want you to release it. You repressed him from the dreamwalk, didn't you? So he wouldn't interfere with Lady Seres's lecture."

"No," she agreed, "but I still heard him, sniveling and blubbering like a child. Personally I'd rather not have him dwell in the mire of the House In-Between where he would get in the way, but I can't think of a more fitting punishment than spending the rest of eternity in there." Her upper lip curled back, exposing a flash of teeth. "Oh, the things he could learn from my memories...all the possibilities that would come to fruition if he had continued living the lies he was offered and made for himself."

"You cannot keep him inside you like that. Peoples' souls should not be ours to judge. As mortal men, it is not our jurisdiction."

"But I'm neither mortal nor human."

"Even so, you cannot decide his fate. We do not live under the yolk of divine judgment anymore." Sarutobi squared his shoulders and looked her dead in the eye, to which she met unflinchingly. "Set him free, Lord Velvet. After all," he added, lowly, "where he is going, it will not be to the Pure Lands."

Velvet blinked and continued to stare. The steel in his gaze hadn't dulled with time; one could strike flint against it and it would still produce sparks. There was a fire like that once, in another man, who wandered Midgand and helped combat the threat of daemonblight, a man who, just like this one, loved and protected his family…but how long ago would that make it now? Did time flow differently in the veil between dimensions, where one flowed faster than the other? Did they operate on the same temporal axis, and fifty-six years had also come and gone in palpitating heartbeats? Or maybe time hadn't passed at all in Wasteland, and that would mean, with her absence, it was truly gone.

_You don't know that,_ said the Girl. _If there were a way, we would only know unless we take it._

_Who cares?_ said the Lord. _You already left your mark on Wasteland and in Al-Elfydd and Kuniumi. Wherever you go, you will always be remembered._

Velvet tuned them out. None of that mattered anymore, and they faded to the background as snowy, muted static.

She could release Mizuki and move on…but maybe she could get more information out of him. Maybe, with enough torture, she could make him spill his guts and confess Orochimaru's whereabouts. Could get him to confess just what the hell he was doing to his agents, because no rational hellion had that kind of strength and endurance unless they had a ton of malevolence repressed over the years ( _—or lost their footing and fell headfirst, into the abyss—_ )…or were experimented on. In that instant, she was reminded of another man, blonde, confident ( _—full of blind ignorance—_ ), and garbed in the white-gold of his Savior, who forced his malak to embrace the blight, and when he did he became a malak no more but a beast, mindless and large and full of a terrible, ancient beauty; and this was a beast that had not been seen in Kuniumi since the Era of the Sage and had all but been forgotten save in the names of jutsu they used.

_They should thank their lucky stars they're extinct,_ she thought, and the memories of confronting Oscar in the downpour outside Titania and Teresa commanding Number Two—Laphicet— _Phi_ , to a suicidal charge stoked something in that cold, empty blackness deep inside her.

It must have shown, whatever it was, for Sarutobi's face matched hers, and that, at least, she could put a name to: determination.

_Let him go,_ said the Girl. _You won't get any answers out of him, and he'll only serve as a detriment to rearing Naruto. They are elsewhere. Don't be hasty._ Then she faded.

_Keep him,_ said the Lord. _et him wallow in the terror of his folly. Reap the seeds he has sown in that snake's name, and take it._ And then She, too, faded.

They waited, listening.

Seres listened.

Velvet weighed her options, and in the back of her mind she saw that Sarutobi did not waver. How very…stubborn.

_How very admirable of him, to stand so firm to his beliefs—_

She broke the silence with a sigh. "Very well. I will honor your request, Lord Hokage." She turned away from him, raised the bandaged arm, and focused inward. Drew in deep within herself, pawed through the mass of malevolence for the hitodama buried underneath.

She found Mizuki, prostate and in a fetal position. He was human again, but the curse seal on the slope of his mutilated neck had made his skin ashen, interrupted by streaks of blackened rashes that had once been tiger stripes. He was emaciated, a bag of bones attached to rancid, spoiled meat, his clothes pooled around him.

She snatched him by the collar, and Mizuki howled. He continued to howl, in low, muffled radio reception, as his soul emerged from the palm of her hand and fled skyward, fading, into the realm where only the dead reigned and there was plenty of room to walk in.

"Thank you, Lord Velvet," said Sarutobi, bowing his head, and he meant it. She could sense the sincerity but also the subtle discomfort he could suppress but his malevolence could not hide. "I know you don't agree with it, but we will have our answers. In time, there will be justice. For now, let us focus our efforts on Naruto."

"As soon as he's registered and is assigned to his team," she said. "Let him come of his own volition. I will give you two months, three at the latest, before I expect you to start handing cells their first C-rank missions."

"That will be plenty of time for you and him to get acquainted."

"And the jounin squad captain? Do you have anyone in mind that won't have any problems with me?"

"I don't know about problems, but I do have a person of interest who will have to be told. The fifteenth Ino-Shika-Cho Trio must be gathered, as well as the Uchiha clan head, so that we can rearrange the cells to accommodate your presence. The others, on the other hand, will know soon enough."

"You do that," said Velvet. "Now I mean to start hunting, Sarutobi, before the night ends. Send me a messenger hawk when you are done for the day. I will return then." She took one step on the precipice of the rooftop, another onto thin air, and morphed into a whirlpool of malevolence that trailed after her just as it had formed.

Let Naruto enjoy his first couple months adjusting to shinobi life. The world waited for him outside those walls, and when he stepped through those gates it would welcome him, the Minder's daughter, and his squad with open arms.

In one hand was the light of humanity.

In the other, the darkness of the world.

In its jaws, balance.

Which would they take? Who could say?


	4. A Light To Be Found in the Dark

Naruto could not go back to sleep that night, not fully. He had been discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health and some choice words from the ANBU medic overseeing him to not perform any strenuous activity that may drain his chakra—and the Fox's—any more than they were earlier in the day when they were out, but not before he finished speaking to Master Inoichi.

It had lasted no more than an hour at best, but the conversation seemed as if it had dragged, slowly, excruciatingly, not out of a sense of boredom and an urge to be away from the man. No, he would later think that night, as he tossed and turned in bed at home. It had felt like it had gone on longer because of what Master Inoichi told him. His words lingered in the back of his mind as much as the images, the fantasies, dazzled and played in outrageous, out-of-sequence turn like a film roll shoddily put together, in his mind and behind his eyelids as he tried unsuccessfully to rest.

He pictured Master Inoichi in Point Zero standing behind the gate separating him from Lord Velvet and the Maw of the Beast that contained her therein as ANBU ( _hellion_ ANBU, he recalled with a shudder) applied the purification seals to his body with their claw-tipped fingers. He pictured him being allowed entry inside and approaching her, secreted away in some niche she might have carved for herself in moons past (or perhaps Lord First and Lady Mito made them, for the walls were still very strong and solid to this day). He thought she spent her days brooding her situation, perhaps lamenting she had not caused enough damage and shed not enough bloodshed before Lord Hashirama bested her in combat. Maybe she did nothing at all, and that was what Naruto figured she did the most: sit there, waking from a light doze, arms wrapped about her in a facsimile of comfort, the bandages hiding her claw yellowed with age, with old blood, and sparking malevolent embers. The air around her must have been terrible, stifling, like heat on blacktop pavement that would appear as a hazy mirage on the horizon, but otherwise bearable and posing no immediate danger in turning Master Inoichi and those non-hellion ANBU into mindless, slavering beasts. He would come to a stop before her, not too close to the claw should her temper flare but not too far that she could not hear him and he could apply his jutsu to her when the need arose; and then they would…would….

_Talk,_ Seres told Naruto, as though she caught onto his thoughts (and he wondered if she could see them, how connected she was to him as much as he was to Lord Velvet). _Just talk. She was willing…for the most part._

But that didn't stop the images from assailing him: images of her aura spewing forth like a geyser and filling his pores and orifices until he choked on his tongue and dropped dead on the spot; of her claw snapping the chains and devouring him whole because of one misconstrued word; of her conjuring the trio of dragonhide wolves ("One of which you saw the other night," Inoichi said) and commanding them to tear him apart; of her overpowering the seals and getting her hands on him, claw or no, moving so quickly he would not be able to react; and when she was done with him, she would direct her wrath, her hunger, on the Guard, the shinobi of the Leaf, and—

He awoke with a gasp, eyes snapping open. He was on his back, staring up at the ceiling, and for a split second he did not know where he was. Then he did, turning his head aside toward the alarm clock. It was four o'clock, more or less on the button, no more than three hours since he had come home. Sunrise was still a ways off.

Naruto groaned and sat up, throwing the sheets off him that somehow managed to stay on him and not on the floor as he anticipated. "Can't sleep anymore," he grumbled, shivering as he planted his bare feet on the floor. _I'm surprised I even slept at all,_ he thought, and he still found it hard to believe he had been out the whole day. One day! He could've used that time to go shopping for tools and supplies on the field and out, could have gone to one of the training fields and experimented the informational processing method the Shadow Clone Jutsu was famous for until he had it down to a T and walked away satisfied.

He touched the spot where the wound used to be, brows knitting uneasily. No, not again, and not so quickly. As chaotic and harrowing his brush with death had been this was for the best. He would wait—impatiently, swearing his misfortune, but he would wait nonetheless.

He sighed and padded to the refrigerator. He opened the door and grunted, squinting as the light bulb sketched scarlet afterimages behind his eyes. When his sight adjusted, he took stock of the contents and frowned. There was barely anything in there: a carton of milk, some wheat bread, three slices of processed ham, a plastic bin of fried rice he had made for himself about—he did the math in his head—a week ago. His stomach dropped; he had been so busy preparing for the graduation exam he had neglected to replenish it, and it plummeted even more when he recalled the cupboards and pantry next to him.

_That's what you get for having your head go from being up in the clouds to being rammed down your ass in one night,_ Kurama said, unkindly. _Now you pay the price._

"Oh, shove it," Naruto countered with little muster. As if in response, his belly rumbled. A small whine escaped him as he beheld his empty fridge. He pulled out the transparent shelf where the meat resided, took the box it was in, and pried off the lid. He fingered the first slice, lips pulling down at the corners; it looked old, dried, with the first splotches of discolorations decorating the frayed edges. Naruto replaced it back in the box, set it back inside, and turned the packaged bread over. It felt hard, cold, and was starting to mold. Sinking further into dismay, he pulled out the carton of milk and fumbled with unfolding and prying up the top and gable.

He sniffed it—and only once. "Oh my god!" he choked, holding it away from him. The stench was powerful, heady, like sewage. His stomach flopped.

Kurama laughed uproariously. _Rise and shine, pup! Nothing better to start your day than a cold glass of spoiled milk!_

"Sh-Shut up!" He held his breath, pushed the gable closed, and shut the fridge. Naruto got up and walked away, trying to dispose of the stench from his face with a wave of his hand. "Ugh! Holy shit!"

_You'll get no sympathy from me, kid. You shoulda known better—_

"I know, I know! Ya think I don't know that?" He stopped in front of the cupboards to catch his breath. "I'll put it in the trash and take it out in the morning; people are still sleeping."

_Big deal. You're a ninja now. Just have a clone do it for you._

"'m not gonna waste chakra on taking out garbage when I can just do that on my own. Gotta conserve it." He frowned severely at the wooden doors and shelves. "Gotta do a lot more now." He opened one door, peered inside and, sighing, procured a cup of instant ramen. After a bit of finagling with the faucet and the microwave, he had it in and stood around waiting while it brought the cup to a boil. A couple more minutes, and when it was done he retrieved a plastic spork from the drawer and grabbed the cup as easily as he would any other item. With care, but one positive aspect to being a jinchuuriki was having a higher tolerance to pain than one who was not. It stung, slightly, but it was warm, comforting, and then settled.

Naruto went past the bed, unlocked the window and slid it open all the way. He hopped up, draped one leg over the sill, and relaxed, digging in at a slow, leisurely pace.

The night waned. The stars turned. The weather was warm and always had been since the emergence of malevolence and the rise of the Lords Greater and Lesser, but even before then the Land of Fire did not experience more than freezing temperatures and some inches of snow, never a blizzard. People hated working in the snow even if they admired it for its beauty and the joy it brought their children, so perhaps, in some twisted, darkly amusing irony it gave them the respite they yearned for, spoken or unspoken. It also made winter missions much more dangerous, Master Iruka had said once, because that meant an uptick in hellion activity, and when it did snow it would be the perfect environment to perform their duties with little to no hindrance. In those days, Naruto would think how to counter those weaknesses, not only for himself but for his teammates, but here it was a passing thought—something to ruminate on in the days to come should the winter provide a storm or two.

_There's only so much you can do in one sitting,_ Lady Seres said.

Naruto jumped, but only slightly. It was going to take some getting used to having another person that wasn't Kurama speaking to him from within. "I know," he said, spooning some noodles into his mouth. "I don't wanna rush, but…you never know."

_Having your plans written down on paper or spoken out loud doesn't mean you'll actually enact them when the times come. You have to remember the unexpected variables that may occur, one of them being how you yourself may react when confronted by failure and expectation. Even then, how you want to act may not be how you expect to._

He paused, staring at the broth pooling in his utensil. "…Yeah," he mumbled. "I just…wanna be prepared, 's all."

_I'm glad you are taking precautions, but take care not to be too hopeful._ Behind his eyelids, between the dark of the night and the light coming in from the window, he could see the malak standing before the hearth of the House In-Between, her shadow stretched long against the floor and crawling up the wall behind her. The logs tending to the fire cracked and spat; there were white patches on the wood closest to the flame, crumbling in a fine dusty shower. She was there, but his mind wandered and did not focus on her or Kurama entirely. Was he imagining it, or did the bloodbinding simply attune him to the machinations of the seal more thoroughly than what his father had done on the night of his birth?

_I've seen too many good people die because they were hopeful,_ Seres continued, and Naruto stiffened. If she made any indication she could hear his thoughts (could she?) she chose not to give voice to them. Her back was to him, but her tone was far away, subdued, lost in time. _I watched the joy light upon their faces when they had done good, or thought to have done good. I watched them praise their comrades, how they boasted and gave cheer and walked away._ A beat. _I watched them fall. I watched the light fade from their eyes. Sometimes the fire devoured it. Another. Velvet was very thorough._

_Could have fooled me,_ Kurama grumbled. _By the time I got involved, she was doing whatever it took to gain the advantage._

_Ascendancy to lordship of her caliber brings out the very best—and the very worst—in a person. Even before she amassed the Dread March, she was plotting. Thinking. It was only after she relented and allowed her lieutenants to speak their piece did her Word become manifest, and she accomplished much more than she would have done alone._

_And when those same hellions were whittled to her second and everything came to a head, she forsook all caution and gunned straight for Fire Country. She was fucked from the start._ The Fox bared his teeth in a cruel, humorless smile. _You should know, woman. You were there. You felt everything she felt, saw everything she saw, in and out of the Spaces._

_And still I watched,_ said Seres, and Naruto saw her turn to face Kurama. From what little he could see, her expression was somber, pinched. _Up until the very end._

Naruto set the cup aside, his appetite vanquished. He regarded Konoha, the night sky, the moon, the forests lying unseen over the horizon. All that particular stretch of land where he, Mizuki, and the ninja he had turned had been cordoned off by the Military Police and under ANBU supervision ("The cops don't know," Inoichi had emphasized, "that the blight can mask their true forms; they will only see what the people want to see") while healers from the Unforgotten— _thaumaturges_ —set about cleansing the taint and restoring the area as close to what it once was before. Those who had turned were feral, hungry, and when the Guard was given the order they descended upon them as hawks with talons splayed.

They fed well that night, by tooth and by blade.

His mind reached further. He wondered where Lord Velvet was right now, if she was even still in Konohagakure like she said she would be. Was she even hunting right now? Even though Master Inoichi insisted she would feast only on the beasts and the wild, who was to say she was hunkering somewhere in the shadows of some dark niche, scheming her vengeance on the people that had defeated her and spared her the respite of death? Who was to say she lied and was going on a killing spree right now? What if she was waiting for that perfect moment, that instance where time does not exist and the clarity of thought is all but crystalline, for the Hokage and his own Guard to be alone, away from the public, and do away with them then and there? If she was denied her conquest through Lord Hashirama, then it would be upon Lord Third's head she would separate from his shoulders; for it was Lord Tobirama who made him the eternal fire which casts the longest shadow and dwarfs over all, he who carried on the eternal task of preserving the integrity of the Village and ensuring their greatest enemy, their Adversary, never saw the light of the world ever again.

_And it's all my fault she's up,_ Naruto thought with a bitter twist of his lips. _All mine, even if no one else but the old man and the others do. Everything she'll do will be all on me._

_Thinking is not the same as doing, boy,_ Kurama began, _but I must admit: it's nice to see you got your head on straight for once. Congratulations. You're going to need it._ He ended it off with a snarling chuckle.

_I see you're still as antagonistic as ever,_ Seres said, sighing wearily. _Would it trouble you not to be so blunt?_

_The blunter the better, I say! You of all people should know he's going to need all the help he can get. You have all the knowledge at your disposal—everything that you have seen through the Lord's eyes and everything she has consumed for you to mantle before Senju forced her to release them. Why deny him that by sugarcoating it?_

The malak said nothing, but she made an uncomfortable sound and turned back to the fire, grasping her arm with the other.

From his place in the cage, Kuramar flared his nostrils and licked his lips. _Look at this, boy, he growled to Naruto. Can you believe it? This woman, of all people, is afraid you're going to die._

"Can you blame her? Being a ninja is the hardest job in the world. And I'm tied to Lord Velvet." He couldn't quite stamp out the slight tremor precluding his words. Of all the things he could accept, beyond being the son of the Fourth Hokage, having a tailed beast in his stomach, and understanding the fear and resentment people held toward him for being their sacrifice, being the stopgap between Konoha's survival—perhaps even the whole world—and a mutually assured apocalypse was one he didn't think he could come to terms with even if he lived to the fabled elderly age the Uzumaki were renown for and was upon his deathbed.

_And she's been here for nigh sixty years, watching children come and go, dying by the droves and wading through the bodies for one more minute, and still can't wrap her head around it._ Kurama peered down at the malak between the bars. This is not Wasteland. People have been fucking and sending their spawn for millennia onto the frontlines and will continue to do so for as long as there is lust and greed in the hearts of men. Those same spawn even join the military willingly, yearning for honor and glory and recognition; and more often not, they are going to achieve that in death. It doesn't matter if they're ninja or knights. If it means conscripting their scions and maidens to earn a bit of ryo and gold to fill their coffers or bring prestige to their dusty surnames, then they are going to do so. No amount of pouting and crying and raging at the heavens is going to stop that. If you haven't gotten used to it by now, then maybe you should have done right for the world and died with the Lord so someone else with bigger balls than you can step up and do their damn job, because for what little good they have shown him barely anyone in this Village has bothered to.

"Hey, Kurama—" Naruto began to protest.

_I've told her time and again when Kushina was Keeper. I even told her when Mito was alive and kept taking the Lord out of her cage for her field tests. She says she listens, but she doesn't. Maybe she'll start paying attention when you have your neck in some hellion's jaws or get run through with someone's blade. How does that one sound, Lady Seres?_ His words tapered off in a cavernous, canine rumble.

There was a hard set to her jaw, her lips pressed into a thin line dimpling at the corners, her hands wrapped around herself tight and taut. Still, she stared into the fire, and her eyes shined as though the light from the hearth brought forth the light within her.

She said nothing.

Kurama scoffed and leaned back on his haunches, seemingly satisfied. _You should make yourself useful,_ he told Naruto. _Get your information together for when you go to the office later. That way you'll have the rest of the day to do whatever you please before tomorrow. You will have had caught up on your rest by then._

"Y-Yeah," said Naruto. He glanced down at the hands tapping idly against his lap, and then looked up at nowhere in particular. Looked beyond it, into the House In-Between where Lady Seres brooded silently. He fidgeted. "Um…Lady Seres? Are you—?"

"I'm fine," she said—no, grated, though her tone was calm and steady. She turned away from the hearth, from Kurama, toward the fixed bed. She took a deep breath, held it, released it. "I'm fine," she said again. Then, before he could get another word in, Seres burst into white-blue flame.

Naruto jumped. "What the—?!"

_She went back to Lord Velvet,_ said Kurama. _Probably going to whine and moan about her insignificance._

"You didn't have to be rude to her, ya know! She's lost two Keepers already. You shouldn't criticize her for being worried about me!"

The Fox stared at him. _Naruto, if someone doesn't tell her how it is…who's going to? Your old man Hokage? The Yamanaka Minder? The Lord Herself? I'll say it again: this is not her world. She's had decades to come to terms with this, even though she has accepted the fact her and the Lord will be stuck here until the end of time. She knows this, but she doesn't want to see it. She refuses to. They damned nature and humanity by bringing the blight; the least she can do is leave her morals at the door and do you right by some small measure._

"Maybe her morals aren't wrong," said Naruto. "Maybe it's those same morals that got my mom and Lady Mito this far. Maybe they'll be what save me from going to an early grave."

_By mollycoddling you?_ Kurama sniffed contemptuously. _She may be kind, but she's not someone I'd consider an upstanding role model. But by all means, do what you think is best. I'd like to see how far you'll go with her mindset._

"You make it sound like she only helped out because she didn't have a choice. This is her atonement, isn't it? You heard her; she said so herself this is what she wants. What's so wrong with being concerned for someone's well-being?"

_Being on the path of absolution isn't guaranteed to change someone overnight. Some things are hard to let go. People are stubborn…selfish, if you will._ Kurama grinned and licked his tongue from one corner of his lips to the other. _They think their way is the right way. The_ only _way._

"You still shouldn't condemn her for how she feels!"

_I can say whatever I please, boy, and I say the Lady Seres is a chickenshit pussy. She wishes for an ideal that can't be achieved…not as long as humans and beasts stay the way they are…and not as long as they are determined._ Kurama folded one paw on top of the other. _Remember this, Naruto: people can fight the pain, but they cannot deny happiness. People cannot deny happiness, but they can also not deny the reality that stands in their way. If you wish to find happiness, then you must fight reality by any means necessary, even if that means you must become an enemy of the world and throw it into chaos…or crush it into subservience. You cannot please everyone. You may not even please yourself. But how much is your happiness worth? How much does it matter compared to someone else's? To your Village's? To your country's?_

Naruto blinked owlishly. "How much?" He looked out at the Village, the place he called home, its stucco buildings and flat, double-decked rooftops. He looked upon the faces of the Hokage carved in the stone shielding the forests grown from Lord First's miracle bloodline. He looked past it: to the north, the south, the east, and what hid at his back from the west and Beyond. It was though he was seeing it for the very first time.

"My happiness," he began, tentatively, the words lingering. Then, with a small measure of resolve: "My happiness is to be Hokage."

_And…?_

"And…." He paused. When he was younger, causing trouble and leading ninja on wild goose chases across the Village after pulling off one of his pranks, he would always say he wanted to be Hokage, for they were the strongest shinobi that ever lived. They were the men who were widely recognized and lauded as heroes for their efforts in contributing to ending the Three World Wars and preserving the future of Leaf and Fire in the War Against Malevolence. He had wanted that attention, as well, yearning to aspire to heights higher and greater than even what Lord Hashirama reached in the Spring of Devastation, yearned for the same respect his father had in his waking life. The uncertainty of the future posed by the threat of hellionization and corruption of the land, along with the potential for conflict that came with politics, was not on his mind then. Even when he first heard the tale of Lord Velvet Crowe, the Enemy of Mankind, and was fascinated by the campaigns the Hidden East pushed against her to stem the flow of the Dread March, he had not considered them, though they came and went with the passing of boyish whimsy.

But what now? He wanted to be Hokage for the respect he felt he deserved because…what, because people ignored him and whispered behind his back when they thought he wasn't looking or couldn't hear them? No, he had decided back then, when he had first made his trip into that boundary between realities he had come to call the In-Between, not just that. He wanted respect and recognition because he was the only one his father entrusted, could rely on, to stop Kurama from his crazed rampage. He wanted it even after the beast awoke from his stupor and, years later, explained to his Guardian the best he could what he remembered, for if the world was not a kind place for those hellions who tried to eke an existence in the quiet, lonely shadows then it would not be kind to those other eight jinchuuriki like him that housed their tenants from malevolence and society's hatred. He wanted to be Hokage to surpass the legends of old and the legends of the present, and once he did that he'd…

He'd what? What would he do? He'd seen the way the old man held himself when he navigated Konoha's streets: tall, regal, with a quiet air, but walking as a man who is relaxed, straight-backed, and at one with his surroundings, and the Village reciprocated. He did not wave his hat around nor throw his status in people's faces as Naruto always wanted to do; just as it hanged loosely on his neck did it hang heavy on his head, and his face, for the most part, never betrayed what troubles lurked in the back of his mind. That was a secret only the shadows in his halls and by his side knew.

Was that happiness? Being Hokage to protect the Village but enduring the hardships of clan politics, hellions, and age-old feuds from beyond the border?

What was happiness, if not to simply see the dream come to fruition?

_What is my happiness?_ Naruto asked himself, and he looked within the In-Between for Minato and Kushina. Neither was present at the table.

_You can ask, but their answers are their own. Do not be influenced by them simply out of heritage, nor should you allow the malak and the Lord to sway you out of personal desire._ Kurama snorted and lay his head down between his paws. _Think about it: What is your happiness? How far are you willing to go to see it through?_ He closed his eyes, wrapped his tails around him, and breathed deeply until he fell into a light slumber.

Naruto receded from the House and returned to his own, gazing upon the sleeping Village. "My happiness," he said again, tapping his fingers against the windowsill. He did want recognition and respect, that much was true, not as an aspirant Hokage but as a person. Not from his classmates, which had taken some time for them to grow accustomed to taking his education more seriously and dropping his lifestyle as a dead-last troublemaker, but from the Village as a whole. That was not so wrong, was it? Wasn't that a good thing to desire?

After a while, he decided that no, it wasn't a bad thing to want respect and that it was a good thing to strive for. The only thing that stood between him and that…was time; and some people, no matter how hard he tried or how selflessly he committed himself to it, would not change. Perhaps they never will. The thought pained him.

_People are stubborn…selfish._

He didn't think the Lady Seres was being stubborn or selfish, nor did he think she was in the wrong. Perhaps in her world, this Wasteland, children his age were not legal adults and were not allowed to fight until they were well into adulthood. Perhaps, if her world was as terrible as its name described (and what could have happened in its lifetime to be called that?), children had to be forced to fight, either because their families struggled and had to make ends meet or they had no choice but to be conscripted, enslaved to they who held the economic leash as short as possible. Your bloodline did not matter, only that which you stood with government, church, and the master you were bound to.

_But where do the malaks fit in all that?_ Naruto couldn't fathom to guess. Were there malaks other than Lady Seres? There had to be, because Master Inoichi insinuated the spirits of her world were no different than the beasts from all over Kuniumi, even those who hailed and pledged allegiance to sacred sage territories such as Mount Myoboku the Land of Toads, Ryuichi Cave the Den of Snakes, and Shikkotsu Forest the Haven of Slugs. But if there were, hypothetically speaking, what was their lot in life in Wasteland? If children were endangered, then could it be there were malaks (No, Naruto corrected, malakhim) that shared the same sentiment as her and tried to change that? Did her quest have something to do with it and that was why she was against his becoming a soldier—a blade—for Hokage and Village?

How did Lord Velvet figure into this? If Seres' desire was to see him not be involved in the warring and politicking of the Orient, then what was Lord Velvet's?

Did he even want to know?

He grimaced. _I said we'd have to work it out like adults, but who am I kidding? I'm just a gnat compared to her. Who is going to want to listen to me, some no-name ninja, and take me seriously?_

Naruto snagged the cup ramen and stirred the noodles with little fanfare, all the broth having been absorbed. _This is crazy. I'm crazy._ But the craziest of all would have to be his parent-imprints. Him, getting along with the Lord of Calamity and working together? He was certain that as soon as everyone learned Lord Velvet was not dead and walking the earth, for good this time, then he was as good as dead.

_I can't believe you guys think this is a good idea,_ he thought sullenly. He didn't know which was worse: him being so stupid as to steal the Scroll of Seals and waking up Velvet Crowe or be forced to collaborate with her and his parents dumping all this on him and having the audacity to place their faith in him.

_This is bullshit._

-

Seres didn't come back for the rest of that night and Naruto couldn't quite bring himself to relax and get some sleep, so to occupy himself, even if he had to drag out time itself, he went downstairs to the ground level. The apartment was more or less his by right, given to him by the Hokage when he was old enough to leave the orphanage and lived off the savings Minato and Kushina had stashed away during the former's brief tenure. It was an old place dating back to the time of Lord Senju Tobirama and, once upon a time, people had lived in there, but the vagaries of the Wars had driven them elsewhere and no one seemed to want or expressed interest in purchasing it. By the time Naruto had been relocated here, the place was sparsely furnished and purged of its previous occupants. It was like stepping into a moment frozen in time…but it was his now, had been for nearly six years, and he had made the best of it as much as he could spend.

There was a kitchenette and a sitting area, but no walls to separate one from the other. That was fine by him. He ignored the tables and the counters with their cupboards—he knew they'd be just as barren as their upstairs counterparts if not outright dusty—and went for the corner furthest from the window. Here was a bookcase and a writing desk with compartment drawers to put mundane utilities like post-it notes and lined stationary paper in there. The more important stuff—such as his schoolwork, grocery lists, philosophical quotes he copied from library books, and notes that ranged between ninjutsu and genjutsu theory to budget planning full of scratched writing and ink blots—were stacked and placed side by side in the drawers underneath the table. The bookcase had a niche containing basic training scrolls in pigeonholes whereas the rest of the space was divided by two shelves stuffed with tomes and books. These had either been recovered from neglected, overflowing trash bins from his forays in his youth or bought at rummage book sales when traveling merchants and Westernborn peddlers ( _chapmen_ and _costermongers_ and _cheapjacks_ were some of the odd titles he heard described them) rode upon the crossroads and hawked their wares.

He recalled with some nostalgia and a twang of guilt of one instance where he had gone to the library and tried to steal a couple old volumes dedicated to the military operations Kuniumi conducted across the continent in hopes to stem the tide of infected hellions and swathes of destruction Velvet and her March left in their wake in increasingly desperate efforts. It was public knowledge by now that Lord First and his closest advisers were nearly pushed to breaking under the strain (and it was no surprise, his classmates would whisper, that Madara and Izuna were the first to cave in), but Naruto wanted to know more. Wanted to know how they managed to pick themselves up against the odds and, by sheer luck ( _By providence!_ the Unforgotten adherents would exclaim), diverted the March north away from the western border to buy time to muster their forces and shore up defenses along the land between northern Fire and southern Rice Paddy before they caught onto their ploy. Wanted to know just how in the hell Lord Hashirama beat the ever loving shit out of the Lord of Calamity—a real demon!—on his own. But Master Iruka and Mizuki were never going to get to those parts right away. They were _so slow_ , they wanted their students to digest this information over time, to reflect on the First's perseverance and the arrogance that had been the Lord's undoing so they could apply those lessons to their lives, and Naruto did not have time for that. So when class had finished and he snapped out of the trance he had been in for who knew how long, staring at the artist's interpretation of the two-legged she-wolf commanding her army of demons, smoke-haints, and dragons at the Kage and their ninja, he bolted out of his seat and gunned straight for the library.

He was stupid to think he had pulled a fast one on them by applying a henge and stuffing them in his backpack, thinking how much of a hot shit he was for outsmarting the grown-ups. Oh, was he wrong, because he had just so happened to have forgotten the ANBU following him every step of the way—ANBU that, he would learn some time later, were assigned by the Hokage to keep an eye on him and step in should the need arise. At first they were surprised; some had even laughed and seemed to be amused. Then they were stern, and before Naruto could get a bead out of what was going through their minds _(—Uzumaki Naruto is reading? Did hell freeze over? —)_ they delivered him to the old man himself.

He had expected to be reamed for his insolence. Instead, and it came to him with a sudden clarity, the Hokage had fiddled with one of the books, the pages flying from his fingers as he riffled through them. He had a look on his face that seemed so out of place at the time. It was a look not of the aggrieved annoyance that usually came with putting up his shenanigans on a daily basis.

No, it was one of profound disappointment and…was it sadness? Yes, yes that was sadness directed at him, and Naruto had never felt more confused and ashamed than he did in that moment.

The Hokage did not punish him that day; instead he asked him to come with him for a walk around the Village, and Naruto, not wanting to cause any more trouble, simply followed. They had gone everywhere: the Konoha Archive Library, the General Hospital, the cemetery, the memorial stones where the names of all ninja killed in the line of duty were inscribed (where he had said, just prior to the Hokage telling him what they really were and the horror set in, he wanted his name to be on). For each place they had gone to, the old man posed this question: What could you do for your Village if you did not have the means to provide for them? How could he, if he was denied the opportunity from everyone he scorned?

He asked that only Naruto dwell on it, and for the rest of the walk Naruto did. They had ended their journey at Ichiraku's, and it was there the old man inquired him of his thoughts.

After that, things changed. Better grades, somewhat improved relations with his classmates and the Village (though they still turned their noses up at him), a different outlook on life that he hoped was for the best and mattered in the end….

How much of that would change when he became a ninja? How much of it would remain the same? Would he?

How long would he last?

Naruto sighed, went over to the desk, and started rooting around for his identification papers. Once those were gathered and clipped, he snagged his writing utensils and a half-used memo pad. He would take these upstairs and put them in the rucksack, the one he used for the Academy and when he went to the training grounds, by his bedside, along with the overstuffed frog wallet affectionately nicknamed Froggy for when he had finished his business and hit the market district.

With that settled he made to take them only to pause and regard the bookcase. There weren't as many as he would have liked: cookbooks from far-away Earth and Mist and Lightning (as well as allegedly "authentic" Uzushio cuisine); chapbooks of the effect malevolence had on the ecology in Wind Country and the ruins along the Boiling Shore that had once been called the Manannan Isthmus, yellowed history textbooks focused on the World Wars, invasions, and sieges; opinion pieces of the Spring of Devastation and how it changed society forever; essays concerned with _demonology_ , the study of hellions and dragons, and, quite absurdly, how it might give rise to a resurgence in true youkai and not those mutated from blight and infection; pamphlets from the Unforgotten imploring him to attain kensho and apply it to daily life, so that they may earn the favor of their goddess, the Lady-in-Waiting, and be blessed with good fortune and strength in 'these dark times'.

As interesting as they normally were, none seemed to strike his fancy. One, however, did, and he pulled it out. He looked at the title on the cover. _The Rousing of the East and the Wrath of the West: An Annotated Account of the Spring of Devastation_ , by Yamanaka Inomaru. He couldn't help but smile. It was not the exact same copy he tried to nick from the library, but it was bought and given to him from the old man himself as a gift for moving into the house. "I will send you more…that is, if you keep up your studies and stay out of trouble," he had said.

Well, getting his grade point average up and keeping them consistent was a hassle…but the challenge proved to be well worth all the nail-biting and grumbling over trigonometric formulas. Having your test handed back to you with not an A but a B, even a C, felt good.

As for staying out of trouble? Well, he managed as much as he could. It wasn't his fault kids kept accusing him of being Master Iruka's pet or trying to convince the Hokage into coercing his subordinate teachers into changing his grades and tried to put him in his place. People liked others that were nice, even a tricky rogue who didn't mean to cause trouble but had good intentions to make merry and laughter afterwards…but no one liked people that were hen-pecked or complete doormats, and Naruto was anything but a hen-pecked doormat. No one liked tricky rogues who were in it for themselves and gave their elders the run-around, either. He wondered if anyone missed those days.

He stared at the cover. It was an image of the First Kage leading a charge in the jutsu-wrecked land of the Valley of the End with their soldiers rallying behind them, hands formed mid-seal, weapons and flags raised high. On the back was the enemy, of the Lord of Calamity and the Dread March bristling at the rearguard, standing in a fog of muddy blight. She was depicted as a demon that stood taller than the rest, with upswept dragon horns on her head, a long, sinuous tail, and massive, outstretched wings; wolf ears and sleek, black-purple fur flecked with scales. There was an empty hole in her chest, as though a cannonball had shot through her and left the wound behind clean. Her snout was curdled in an angry snarl, showing rows of sharp teeth. The infamous red, black-streaked arm was outstretched as if to reach across the spine to consume human and summon beast.

He turned it to the front again and saw the artist's name: Yasagami Nouma. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't place a face to it. Maybe she partook in the Spring, too. If she did, and was still alive, how would she react if she were to see the real Lord of Calamity—not a dragon-touched demon lord of malevolence, but a young woman, alive and well, who had been sleeping on and off beneath Konoha for nearly sixty years?

He opened the book and flipped through the pages. Here was a picture of a white lily found in the forests bordering the Village with black specks of malevolence hovering in the air, found by the thirteenth Ino-Shika-Cho cell on a scouting expedition. It was the first known case that documented the rapid spread of blight. Here was another of the razing of Roland and Sunagakure, where it is claimed by surviving refugees Lord Velvet displayed her ability to instantly infect and hellionize humans on a mass scale. There were many other illustrations: the sacking of Kazahana Castle in Snow; the death of Kajiro, who had then been General of the Land of Iron's samurai, who fell to the Lord in combat; the Iburi Clan's stand against the Dread March in the lowlands between western River and south Fire as they were picked off one by one; the clash between Lord Velvet and Senju Hashirama in the smoking crater of the Valley of the End.

There was nothing that indicated him sparing her life, not even an illustration. Having reached the end of that particular chapter, Naruto's eyes fell upon the middle of the last paragraph: _…and after a long and arduous battle, Hashirama struck down Lord Velvet until she could rise no more. Unable to conjure the blight-cloak that made her nigh impenetrable, having all the strength drained from her, she could not stop Hashirama as he ran her through with his sword. It was here, underneath the stormy sky, that she met her end, and Velvet Crowe was slain forever, never again to terrorize Al-Elffyd and Kuniumi with her endless hatred._

Naruto frowned. He could recall, very vividly, when Master Iruka reached this part of the Spring's history. Ino went on for _days_ about her grandpa taking part in the war, proudly exclaiming that she heard from her dad how Inomaru challenged Lord Velvet to a fight when he saw Lord Hashirama become overpowered during one of the skirmishes in Fire. He had tricked her into thinking she had slain a clone, she said, and when she realized what had happened and how much of a dent their plans had pushed back the March (this was just before the Five Villages decided on the notion to create the Northern Diversion), Velvet flew into a humiliated rage and swore a blood oath to consume Inomaru himself. Everyone thought it was bunk and said to Ino it was such, who would always pout and insisted it was true—her dad would _never_ lie about something like that; he still had the hilt from the sword Inomaru used to fight with locked up in the house, for the blade itself was destroyed. Naruto wasn't so sure if Inomaru did fight Velvet, but the book and the entry he was mentioned in on the Scroll of Seals were proof he had lived to see the end of the Spring and continue the Yamanaka bloodline. If anything, he must've been a very important man to be entrusted by the First Hokage to deal with Velvet Crowe personally and ensure that the public never knew the truth of what became of her.

He sighed and closed the book. He didn't know anything anymore. He just knew he had read this thing so many times that the pages were starting to show the wear (and, thankfully, no tearing yet) of being dog-eared, but it wouldn't hurt to take it with him when he went to the administration office later. He'd have nothing to do in the waiting room other than to kill time; a little more reading, a reminder of what he was dealing with, wouldn't hurt.

"I wonder what everyone'll say when they see me," he said to himself. "They'll probably say I shouldn't be here. Graduates only." It was true; he did not technically graduate. By all rights, he should have been expelled from the Academy and be put under lock and key for stealing the Scroll. It was not so much by the old man's grace but having forced his hand that he was even going to be a ninja.

Right then and there, Naruto realized it for what it was: conscription. His stomach dropped through his feet, through the floor, through the world. His head swam; for a moment, he felt faint and thought he would collapse where he stood. His heart hammered in his ears.

_I'm a goner,_ he thought hopelessly. _I'm bound to the most notorious hellion in history and I'm being drafted into service against my will. I am a fucking goner._

Then, with a sudden rush of anger that filled him with energy and banished the nausea and vertigo: _No! No, you're not going to die! You're not gonna give up! You're gonna become Hokage. You're gonna win at this and show Velvet who's boss. You got this, Naruto! You can do it!_

His lips curled as he recalled the way the Lord looked upon him in the hospital, the smooth, analytical detachment of a predator silently judging its cub. Wondering if one as damned and beast-touched as he would be worth her time. If he could ever hope to fill in the shoes his mother and Lady Mito left behind for him to wear.

_I'm not going to wait for the boy to say when it's alright to feed,_ she had said.

_He's not my responsibility. I've already shown him what to do. What happens next is up to him._

He gripped the book hard, his knuckles whitening. _You haven't shown me anything! You upped and took off on me! What kind of legal guardian does that to someone who almost got killed?_

Then, an image: of her dashing the odd wrist-blade through the air, splashing blood over the ground like spilled paint. The smoke contrail of blight exuding from the demon arm pulsating underneath its wrappings. The fear in Mizuki's eyes as he realized this dark lord, a specter of death mythologized, was true and had come to deliver him to hell.

_Watch me,_ she said. _Just once this. I will show you what it means to endure._

He thought, _You think I don't know that by now? That I'm gonna have to kill sooner or later? What I'll be enduring will be a helluva lot more than you ever had to put up with in your life!_ He swallowed thickly. _She's right. I'm going to be an adult. I can take care of myself. I already have. I've done it all my life while everyone else either gave me the stink eye, gave me shit, or told me to go rot in hell because I 'killed' their relatives. Why start now? I can make ends meet. I can do this._

Could he? He may not have need of her…but someone had to keep an eye on her. _The ANBU can do it! Some of them are hellions!_ But they were not bloodbound to her the way he was. Perhaps, for all their expertise, their malevolence was dwarfed by hers and therefore could not establish a parasitic connection with her, and, depending on how large their chakra reserves were, their bodies would be unable to filter and recycle her blight. What would happen to them, then, if they couldn't contain it?

What if they couldn't stop her?

One part of him said: _I hope they're watching her. I hope they step in if she tries something, because there's no way in hell I'll be able to yet._

_Not yet,_ reminded another, quite firmly, and it made him loosen the death grip he had on the book though all the tension did not melt from him. _Remember, Lady Seres said she can't reach her peak anymore so long as you're around to hold her leftover blight. She'd be stupid to try to end the world._

_You never know,_ said the first part. _She could still be angry. She's the Lord of Lords; if she really wants vengeance, she'll do it._

_She won't kill you,_ said a third part, faint and ephemeral he could almost believe it was someone whispering it in his ear. It almost sounded like his mother. _Not unless she has to._

_She knows better,_ said another, and it almost sounded like his father, too.

"Does she?" he asked aloud, but the voices, his inner thoughts, did not speak back to him. Naruto sighed defeat and clutched the book under his arm. "I need to get stronger," he said, more determined, and clenched his fist. "I have to." If Velvet were ever to step out of line and the ANBU were incapable of putting her back in place, if the Hokage and Master Inoichi and the hellions comprising her Guard could not rein her in, then it would be up to him to do what they could not. Was that not his role as the Lord's Keeper? What was one more beast to safeguard the world from?

He would do what he could. He would be better than what he was now, and then some, as long as he was one step ahead of Lord Velvet Crowe. He would make sure of it.

That was how the first tenant of his ninja creed came to be.

(There would be many, many more to come.)


	5. The Devils of the Details

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- This might be due to me having little knowledge of the worldbuilding that occurs in the anime, but ANBU don't seem to bear codenames in canon based off the shapes of their mask. If anything, this seems to be a trope stemmed from fanon, like the idea of Naruto being cared for by orphanage matrons (and treated like shit as a result) when, for what canon is worth, he wasn't even placed in that and lived and thrived on Konoha on his own right from the get-go...which kind of makes Sarutobi seem like a colossal dick for not at least doing something about it. Then again, this could be explained as Kishimoto not really going into the specifics of it since Naruto's backstory prior to joining the Academy originates from Part A of the Childhood Arc in _Shippuden_ via Studio Pierrot.
> 
> Therefore, returning on topic, I've decided to go with the idea of giving ANBU codenames...although for Yuugao's case, it's more a matter of her keeping tabs on Velvet regarding her concealed position than it going by the shape of her mask. However, I went with the name Fukurou (as opposed to Tsubame, in the original document), as Yuugao's name can be translated to 'moon-flower', and owls are often associated with the moon. A third note to be made is that, as this is an alternate universe, Yuugao is indeed wearing an owl-shaped mask as her companion Kuroguma wears a mask in the shape of a black bear, so either explanation can work.
> 
> \- Punishments for insubordination in a genin cell, as well as defecting the village with enough reason to be labeled a rogue ninja, was drawn from inspiration from the penalties the U.S. inflicts on draft dodgers and those who are charged with falsifying documents in the time of World War 2. It's most likely not accurate, but it's as close as I could get to it. The latter descriptions of what should become of a rogue ninja who returns to reestablish his ties and moral integrity to the Village he has forsaken is established more out of artistic liberty than factual research (although Narutopedia states that not everyone that leaves the Village, like Tsunade, become a rogue ninja, and she still isn't in this universe due to the reasons she did so in the first place does not warrant enough incentive to classify her as one).

Naruto's nerves were still frayed even as he made his resolve, so he brewed a packet of iced tea (the last one!) he dug out from one of the cabinets from the downstairs microwave once he put his papers in the rucksack. Then he sat at the writing desk, cracked open Inomaru's novel, and for the next two hours he drifted into a lackadaisical daze, sometimes lingering on a chapter for longer than he would intend.

It was nothing new that his folks, Lady Seres, and Kurama told him: Velvet was a very ruthless warlord who easily accumulated the numbers needed to march upon Kuniumi and took every advantage that was presented to her, from ransacking the armories containing the siege engines, attack gliders, and chakra armor allegedly based off schematics discovered from the old kala ruins (kala – derived from the god Mahakala - being the ancient word for the passage of time and the passage of all things, but also of wealth and fortune, depending on how one interpreted it) to sending a small number of her scouts west over the mountains and east over the sea to further spread her corruption while she pressed onward. She had many subordinates to do her bidding, but none more so than Rhonar the Wanderer, a Western man who willingly hellionized and pledged his loyalty to her—a loyalty that carried him all the way to the Valley of the End, where he was skewered upon Raijin, Lord Tobirama's sword. They were the ones who helped her take her this far into Kuniumi; if not for them, she would have surely made a beeline straight for Konoha, maybe even beyond, and not bother with the rest of the continent. But she had listened to them, Inomaru stated, had actually stopped and considered how best to approach Kuniumi, because (it was assumed) she herself did not know how to, being only one hellion compared to millions of shinobi and some thousand samurai teeming with steel and thrumming with jutsu _(Magic, Naruto,_ Master Inoichi had said, _Velvet thought it was magic people used due to contracts formed from malaks, which are similar to our summon beasts and kami. To learn that humans could use jutsu, magic, and not always call upon the summons—beasts that we can see just as we can see each other, plain as day—astounded her)_ , and so she turned to them and, as time went on, adapted into the role she would become notorious for.

Naruto couldn't help but wonder how much of the information was drawn from Inomaru applying the Mind Transmission Jutsu on Velvet. How much he learned from his sessions had to be studied and selected to be published and see the light of day while the rest was secreted away in dark places only the Hokage and his confidantes knew.

He groaned quietly and ran a hand down his face. _Sage, don't start over-thinking now._ There was already the beginning of a headache forming between his eyes. He kneaded the skin there and drained the last of the tea. He was lucky he didn't have any more to make him another cup. He was also lucky to be twelve and not twenty-two, where he could indulge the starving artist in him and drink himself into a stupor.

Dawn was breaking by the time he pulled on the rucksack and left the house. Even in the quietude of early morning, the Village was always active: while the children would be getting ready for school, the police would be patrolling along the inner sanctum while the ANBU swept in and out of the walls, looking not only inward but outward for suspicious malcontents. In uniform or in plainclothes they would mingle among the crowds and linger at the edges, ever watchful and ever moving.

There were ninja coming and going from the Academy's administrative wing. He had nodded to them or gave them a brief, perfunctory greeting, and they would return it in kind with the wave of a hand. This was how the routine normally went…but the atmosphere had changed. Some of them seemed to look down at him and then away just as soon as he looked back at them. Others merely mumbled and carried on, almost as if they wanted to be somewhere else.

It was neither resentment nor indifference he could sense. It was caution. It was shock.

For a split second, he thought he saw pity.

Could they tell he had become a stopgap? Did they know for sure, without a doubt, that Lord Velvet Crowe was awake?

He could see the specks of dark energy floating from their bodies and dissipating in the air, hanging onto them like static cling. He blinked rapidly when they had passed. The malevolence remained.

Naruto pressed on, and after he had spoken to the receptionist at the service desk and presented his papers, he was told to take a seat and wait while the information was scanned and processed in their computer systems. So he did, opting for a chair by the window overlooking the streets winding through Konoha. He put the rucksack on the seat next to him, took out _The Rousing of the East and the Wrath of the West_ , and cracked it open to a random page.

He had been idly turning them, eyes skimming through passages rather than reading them, when a voice called out to him: "Uzumaki Naruto?" He started and looked up, thinking it was the receptionist. It wasn't. It was a young man with wild black hair, dressed in the green flak jacket and blue uniform that was standard to higher-ranked shinobi. There was a strip of white bandage covering the high plateaus of his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. He was accompanied by two other men: one whose head was donned in a blue bandana with short brown hair falling over one eye, and another who had a katana strapped to his back. This one had crow's feet around his eyes that made him seem more tired than bored, but he had been surveying the area, and he was staring at him when they came to a stop.

This one was oozing with malevolence…but he did not appear monstrous.

_Neither did Mizuki._ Nevertheless, Naruto's heart leaped in his throat. "H-Hello," he said.

The man nodded back. "We heard about what happened the other night," he began. "The boys and I were talking it over, and we just wanted to let you know that…well, you're doing a good thing. No matter what happens or what people will say. It won't be easy. You just gotta keep on keepin' on, know what I'm saying?"

"Uh, yeah."

"We wish you all the luck in the world, Naruto," said the man with the bandana. "Do what you think is right."

"I-I will. Thank you."

The first man smiled and shot him a lazy salute. "Take care, Naruto." He walked away and his companion followed. The other ninja with the katana tilted his head and regarded him curiously, humming. Then he nodded—Naruto didn't know if he was satisfied or not with what he saw—and said, in a low, raspy voice, "Lady watch over you." He went to rejoin the two men.

Naruto leaned back in the chair, not only stunned at the hellion's oath, but confused. What exactly did they hear about the other night? Was it Mizuki using the blight to hide his true form…or…?

He shook his head and went back to uselessly perusing the book.

After a few more minutes, the receptionist told him his information had been approved and placed into the registry logs. All he needed to do was to meet with the photographer on the rooftop to have his picture taken, and while his photo ID was being printed and laminated he would meet with the Hokage to receive his copy of draft papers and his forehead protector.

The warm wind went through his jumpsuit as if it were paper.

The photographer, who was a short, balding man with half-moon glasses and a slight arch to his back, leveled him a frowning, wary look. "Uzumaki Naruto, huh?" he asked. When Naruto perked up, he added, "You're something else, aren'tcha?"

"Eh? What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "I dunno whatcha did, but whatever it is, it seems like you really kicked a hornet's nest. Some of these ninja-folk," he scoffed, "they think they're being so quiet and discreet. Even if I only heard bits an' pieces, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together to know you've got 'em all wound up." He tinkered with the camera on the tripod. "Some of 'em even looked scared. Ha! Can you believe it? Like, I know a ninja's life ain't what ya call easy street, but to be scared over you? I'd sooner piss myself seein' a hellion than a li'l shrimp like you."

Naruto scowled but didn't rise to the bait. He sighed and unclenched the fists he didn't realize he had balled up. "Do you know why I'm becoming a ninja? You must've heard something. Maybe the Hokage—?"

"No, I didn't, and the Hokage gave me the same rigamorale for every other Peabody I've come across since yesterday: just sit ya down nice an' easy, take your picture, and deliver it to the darkroom. You're the only person I have today. Ah, there we go." He straightened up, fingers on one hand lifting the black sheet. "I give ya credit where it's due, though. I like to think myself a simple man who'd protect his family if it comes down to it, but I could never see myself go through what they put you guys through. 'Specially with the kind o' stuff that's roaming out there." He jabbed a thumb behind him, to the Village and beyond, making a tut-tutting sound while shaking his head. "I'd hate to be a ninja. World's a hellish enough place already, with the blight and demons and just fucked up people in general."

"I don't blame you," said Naruto.

"Being a ninja's like carrying a death sentence: you never know if you're gonna die a sane man or change into one o' those things and die, anyway. It sucks to be you," said the photographer, not unkindly, "but…you gotta do what you gotta do, right? That's why you're here, 'cause you can't see yourself as anything else other than a ninja. Oh, and you make good money. Real good money."

Suddenly, Naruto wanted to run away—run, and not look back. He would have, had his legs not felt like lead and were rooted to the spot. "It goes a long way," was all he could manage, for he did not trust himself to say any more.

"Yeah. Tell me about. Now take your seat and…oh, I don't know, smile? Frown? Who cares, it's going straight to the dossiers, anyway. Gotta make a lasting impression on the other nations if they put your head on the chopping block."

As Naruto sat on the stool, zipping up his jacket to appear presentable, he thought, _I can still run. He said it himself he's not a ninja. I can just jump over his head, hop down the building, and make a run for it. I don't have to be a shinobi. I don't have to fight hellions. I can start over. I can get away from everything. There's gotta be at least one place in the world that isn't being sucked dry by malevolence._

But that was an utterly stupid thing to think, and, whether it was by sheer luck or by sensing his inner turmoil, it was enough to waken Kurama. _What are you going on about?_ The Fox asked.

_Nothing,_ Naruto added quickly.

_I can't read minds, but I can tell when a person's scared shitless, and if you sit here any longer you're going to soil yourself. You're in this for the long haul. If you bolt now, they will find you and they will catch you. They will throw you onto the frontlines and make you feed that glutton until you either die or they get a hold of another Uzumaki and make 'em carry the torch. And as far as I can tell, there aren't that many of you left that want to come out of hiding, are there?_

Naruto said nothing, even as he gave the photographer a flat-eyed, neutral expression that tried to mask his terror.

_Let me ask you one thing: You said you wanted to be Hokage, that you want to find your happiness. Are you going to let a single demon bitch ruin it for you? Are you going to stop trying because her spirit guide doesn't want you to get hurt?_

The photographer bent over the camera, adjusting the settings a little more.

_I do want to be Hokage,_ said Naruto. _But not like this!_

_Of course not,_ Kurama rumbled acquiescently. _We didn't have a choice._

He threw the sheet over his head and took up the handle.

_But I'll say this: if you run now, I'll lose what little respect I gained for you in these past few years. We've both made a decision we can't take back. Live with it. Try to do something right with it._

Naruto didn't laugh, but he wanted to, and when he looked at his photo ID later he would be able to see that some dark cheer shone a little in his eyes. _Easy for you to say. It's not gonna be simple._

_No. It won't be._

"Say 'cheese'," said the photographer, and snapped the picture.

No one would blame Uzumaki Naruto for not saying it.

-

When that was done, Naruto got up and went to the nearest restroom. His nerves, plus all the tea he imbibed, made it easy for him to shuck down his pants and let nature do its thing. It didn't help his anxiety any less, but he could think a little more clearly now. Although the temptation was strong, he resisted the urge to let his imagination run wild and force himself to puke in the porcelain sink. He shuddered at the thought and toweled off his hands before stuffing them in his jacket pockets. He didn't want to look at them.

When he was back at the lobby, the receptionist received a call over the PA system that the Hokage would like to see Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto asked if it was okay if he could bring his rucksack with; the receptionist said yes. Naruto thanked her and went ahead to the office.

The Hokage was at his desk, studying a sheaf of papers in his hands. He looked up as the door creaked open; Naruto stood in the threshold, waiting. "Come in, Naruto. Have a seat."

Naruto came in and took it, setting his rucksack down between his feet. He put his hands on his lap and looked down at them, unsure as to whether or not he should speak.

Sarutobi beat him to it. "Everything went through just fine. Your name and information have been included in the registration system where it will take twenty-four hours, or one business day, to process and appear in all military-grade networks in Konohagakure. By this time tomorrow you will have been assigned to your designated team and jounin instructor for the duration of your career, so like the rest of your graduating year your dossier will be labeled 'to be determined' until then. All that is left for you to do is to sign these forms."

He set the papers down and pushed them lightly Naruto's way. "By doing so, you are acknowledging that everything you have presented is accurate and will not be subject to change upon finalization. Refusing to consent or falsifying documentation will result in a felony charge of insubordination and punishable via fine of up to fifty-thousand ryou and a jail sentence of six months to one year depending on how much has been falsified. Failure to report to your jounin instructor or Hokage will result in insubordination as well failure to repair. Deserting the village will result in a federal felony and a potential classification of the label of rogue ninja, wherefore all your financial assets and titles associated with both the clans of birth and clans in alliance to the birth clan or the person they are associated with will henceforth be stripped and seized under Konoha law, and punishable up to the maximum penalty of a lifetime sentence in the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility unless you agree to pledge a blood oath to the feudal lord with the Hokage, current standing Jounin Commander and his or her constituents, and the ANBU Commander and his or her constituents as witnesses. This blood oath being you wish to reestablish your ties to village and country by performing missions suitable to the rank determined by your Bingo Book entry and paying a restitution of twenty-six million ryou. However, should the blood oath be forged, certain benefits will be restricted or withheld for your perusal until the Hokage, the Jounin Commander and his or her constituents, and the ANBU Commander and his or her constituents analyze your moral integrity and reach a mutual consensus to allow you to utilize them. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," said Naruto.

"Good. The copies underneath the forms, as well as the photo ID, are yours to keep for your records as reference and should be locked away in a location that is safe and easy to remember should you need them for anything, such as traveling abroad for the Chuunin Exams or crossing the borders into another country on a sponsored mission that does not require going incognito."

"Okay." Naruto took the pen offered to him and stared down at the papers. He didn't really understand the language of legal jargon, but he knew just enough of the basics to get the gist of what was being presented to him: You are about to become a ninja of Konoha, free to be used at the Hokage's behest and at the expense of protecting the Village. Refusing to sign is not an option. The life you had before the Academy is over.

Wasn't his life already over to begin with, by having the Fox inside him? And if not because of him, then because of Velvet Crowe?

Naruto set the tip of the pen just above the paper so as not to blot it. For a very brief second, he wanted to look up and see what kind of face the old man was giving him. He had to be watching, had to be making sure Naruto signed them. He was the God of Shinobi; one step in the other direction, toward the door where he'd come in, and the Hokage would round him up like cattle. He would march him back to the desk and make him sign them if that was what it took to keep his successor's son—no, the jinchuuriki of the Fox and the Lord's Keeper in Konoha where he could be watched twenty-four seven.

_He wouldn't do that…would he?_ Naruto thought, and then, immediately following that: _Yeah. Yeah, he would._

One by one, Naruto gave the papers a cursory glance. Then he signed them

When he was done, he stripped off the sheets and passed them to Sarutobi. He stacked his copies and photo ID together, put them in a manila envelope given to him from a drawer, and put them between the sheets of the history book inside the rucksack. He fidgeted. "Um, permission to speak freely, sir?"

The Hokage arched a brow at him. "Permission? Naruto, you are more than welcome to speak your mind. I ensured the walls were made soundproof before you came in. What goes on in here is confidential and stays in this room."

"Okay. So, uh, these laws…about desertion." The Hokage nodded. "Given the, um, ways things are right now…does that apply to just me or to everyone in general? Master Inoichi told me last night that there aren't enough seals left to put Lord Velvet back to sleep."

"Yes, that's right. Production on suppression seals have reached a historic low since the founding of the Unforgotten and the Anti-Malevolence Department due to an uptick in hellion activity in the past decade. Whatever happens, we do not have the means to seal her away outside of killing her should she prove out of our control and all viable options have been spent."

Naruto couldn't quite fight off the chill that ran through him. "So what would happen if I had to desert the Village in order to protect it? Let's say I found a way to draw Lord Velvet away from it. Would you have to label me a rogue ninja just for doing what I think is right?"

Sarutobi hummed. "An interesting hypothesis. Your mother posed the same question to I and Master Inomaru when Lady Mito passed away. If we exclude all variables that should amount from your training, provided you make chuunin or even jounin, the malevolence Lord Velvet emits and seeps into your systems should be canceled out by the Fox's chakra and the defense mechanisms in the Eight Sign Seal your father applied to you at your birth. By this method, the risk of hellionization is set at zero." He steepled his hands together. "There is a way to lower these barriers, Naruto, and I will give you the means to do so when the time is right. However, you must promise me that you will only use them on the condition that you must be absolutely certain in your decision; there can be no hesitation. You must also be certain that Lord Velvet consents one-hundred percent."

"What will happen if I lower the barriers?"

"Then your chances of hellionization will increase significantly," said Sarutobi. "I cannot promise you it will even come to that. For all we know, you might hellionize immediately and have to be put down; you are harboring not just your negative emotions but Lord Velvet's as well, and she has had…a very long time to dwell on them." He sighed tiredly. "Neither Kushina nor Lady Mito went so far as to give Lord Velvet access to not just her malevolence but to the Keeper's as well. It wasn't due to a lack of trust that stopped them; rather, it was a fear of what that would entail for the bloodbound host, the population, and the environment itself. More so, they did not know if Lord Velvet would ascend to true lordship at the onset. There is also no guarantee that if you should put considerable distance between yourself and the Lord for any particular reason the strength of the connection in the symbiosis will be maintained."

"So even if I had a good enough reason to leave the Village, I can't even do that?"

"No, not without the training to mitigate the potential fallout that will arise by removing the defenses in the Eight Sign Seal."

"There's no way to tell for sure what'll happen, is there?"

"I do not. Lady Mito's records, or that of Master Inomaru's, make no mention of it. If there is, they have yet to be decoded. They developed a cipher shortly after the Spring to dictate their notes and relay messages to each other, the Unforgotten, and the Anti-Malevolence Department, especially during the height of the World Wars in light of fears of rampant espionage here in the Village. They could not risk such information to fall into enemy hands."

"So no matter what," Naruto began, trying to keep the despair out of his voice, "I have to keep her close to me, or as close to me as the connection will allow. Even if I passed the graduation test properly, I'd still be saddled with her. I'm stuck like this."

"Yes," Sarutobi confirmed sadly. "I am sorry, Naruto. I wish there was a way. Know that the laws are in place to everyone who serves within the Village, not just you."

"Maybe so, but you have to make sure I don't pull any funny business, right?" Naruto spat heatedly. "That's what it comes down to in the end, eh? Losing me means losing a trump card, and if you lose me you lose Lord Velvet, too. If it's not _me_ , then it's _her_ you have to watch out for. Sixty years doesn't exactly change a person. I bet some people are so set in their ways they don't want to change, so whatever good intentions I have go right out the window because we're bloodbound and that either means both of us or none at all. You can't take any chances."

"Naruto—"

"It's for the good of the Village, isn't it?" At this, Naruto deflated. "Right? That's what a Kage's supposed to do? Protect the people from all threats, even if they come from within?"

Sarutobi was silent for a long time. Then at last he sighed and leaned back in his seat. Slumped in it, and the Hokage never slumped; even when Naruto used to pull pranks, he had never seen the old man slouch. His back was always straight and his shoulders set. He knew what he was about to do. This time was an exception. "Yes," he said. "That's what a Kage does. They must protect and serve the people of the Village, at any and all cost."

"Of course," Naruto said, laughing weakly. "What was I thinking? I'm the one who keeps saying 'I want to be Hokage!' I should know better."

"It's alright, Naruto," Sarutobi said gently. "The dream that you want to have and the dream that becomes real are two different creatures. You will never know how much of a burden it may be until you see it for yourself." He pulled open a drawer and placed the stack of papers in them. "Tell me, Naruto, and tell me truthfully: do you still want to be Hokage?"

Naruto sat up so fast it seemed he'd been whipped to do so than by piqued interest. "Do I still want to be…? Old man, what are you talking about?"

"I'm saying do you still want to be Hokage after everything you've learned in school and seen so far since Lord Velvet's wakening? You may possess the Will of Fire, but do you think you would be able to put yourself in a position where the pressure may prove too much for you to bear? Would you be strong enough to send your own countrymen, some whom you may call friend, to war against the other nations that want to slake their thirst for vengeance in the name of justice, in order to protect your people and the Village you call home?"

"I...!" Naruto started, leaning up and forward in his chair. One hand raised, index finger pointed at the old man to object. "I…." The finger curled in on itself, his shoulders drooped, and Naruto sat back down, almost doubled over. "I don't know," he mumbled, and ran his hands down his face. "I don't know if I can do all that. I mean…I wanted something, ya know? When I was a kid? I needed something to prove everyone wrong. That I belong here. That if I become the strongest ninja in the world, then they'd have to cut me some slack and show some respect." He shrugged uselessly. "I dunno. It seemed like such a good idea at the time."

"I know, Naruto," said Sarutobi. "It's not an easy job. It certainly doesn't make my life any easier, knowing what I have to do. Were your father still alive, I would happily spend the rest of my days in retirement and tell the feudal lord to go somewhere else. But, retirement or no, I would still be willing to lay my life down for the Village. It has been my home since Lord Hashirama raised the forests that give it its name and my clan joined those aligned with the Senju and those of the Uchiha in settlement. In my old age I will do what I believe is best for the Village, regardless if the enemy is a Nine-Tailed Fox, a Lord of Calamity…or even a Velvet Crowe.

"I would think it over, Naruto. Dreams are one thing, but dreams of this magnitude are something you should consider very carefully. Sometimes there is no going back once a decision has been made. Whatever you decide, I will support you every step of the way…to a point, that is. You are dear to me, Naruto, but I can't go around showing favoritism."

"Could we still go out for ramen?"

"Well…I would have to look at my schedule…maybe pull a couple strings here and there…but depending on what's on the agenda, I should be able to make some time for it. Not as much as before, now that you are a shinobi of Konoha…but I think we can find a way, yes?" He gave Naruto an easy, reassuring smile.

Naruto tried to reciprocate it; it was half-hearted at best, although it made him feel slightly better. "That's if my master lets me."

Something in that smile dimmed, but then it was gone. Maybe it was just his imagination. "Yes…if they let you. You'll have a long road ahead of you, no doubt about that. Ah, but who knows? Maybe your instructor will be kind to you. It's hard to say. Team announcements will be tomorrow morning, so be sure you spend the rest of the day taking care of last minute business before it's through. There are going to be instances where you will be out of the Village for a period of time."

"I haven't stayed out past curfew since I was eight, sir," Naruto said, and when he laughed it was clear and much less troubled. "I don't have anything else to do, anyway. I'll putz around somehow."

"Very well. And Lord Velvet?"

His face darkened. "What about her?"

"She will be notified later today of the team placements."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, Naruto, I am serious."

"Don't tell me she's going to be part of my team!"

"Officially, no."

"Then what's gonna happen when I go out of the country? She can't stay here! She—no." He shook his head wildly. "No, old man, you can't! People will notice!"

"I don't know how far apart the two of you have to be for the connection to break, or at the very least weaken, but I will not be sending you on C-rank missions right away. All newly-minted genin cells start off with D-rank missions set within the Village and in the outskirts to espouse the importance of teamwork and train their minds and bodies to endure the physical and mental efforts higher-ranked missions require. If we are to understand the limits of the bloodbinding, we have to test it. If it turns out the symbiosis stays intact, then the distance will cease being a detriment. However, if it should prove to be a problem, then it will be enough to simply place Lord Velvet at a distance where she will not attract much attention. It will have to be done this way. It will be no different than having one of your ANBU guards keeping tabs on you, only this time it will include your teammates and your instructor."

"But they'll know eventually, won't they, old man? They're gonna see her, right?"

Sarutobi pursed his lips together in a fine, thin line. "Sooner or later, they will know. Not just them. Everyone will. There is no way to avoid that. History has already spoken on Lord Velvet, and soon they will speak on you. No matter what happens, Naruto, only you can say for sure whether the journey's end will be well worth the pain and suffering that will come your way. That should be what counts the most. Now I'm afraid I will have to let you go for now, as there are pressing matters I must attend to...that is, unless, there is anything else?"

Naruto considered it, and when Sarutobi made to dismiss him, he said, "Yeah. Just one more. You must have some idea of what this dreamwalk thing is."

"Indeed I do. It is, in the simplest understanding of the definition, a realm of sorts that exists on the borders between the reality of wakefulness and the reality of sleep. Kushina used to relate them to me, during and after the Third War." The Hokage folded his hands on the desk. "Did you experience an incident last night?"

"No, but I had something like that happen to me before I woke up in the hospital." So Naruto gave the old man a short, condensed account of what had gone on: of the chakra imprints formed of his parents, the Lady Seres and of her being a malak, Kurama, and how in their own way they ("Or at least my folks did," Naruto added off-handedly) had the utter most faith in him that he could find reason with the Lord of Calamity and be…he couldn't bring himself to say 'friends' but neither could he say 'companions' with or without convenience; so he settled for 'allies of convenience' and even that tasted dirty in his mouth. He emphasized how much his mother understood the Lord Velvet, how long it had taken her to turn the fear and hatred of the ninja world's greatest enemy into one of caring and trust. He emphasized how much Seres made of the tribulations he would face as both ninja and provider of souls, and the consequences that would befall him because of that. He had even mentioned the seals forged by the Uzumaki sealsmiths that were more than likely destroyed at the time of its Fall by the other Five Great Nations.

When he was done, Sarutobi sat for a time, thinking. "Don't you think this is impossible?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I haven't even done anything with her let alone to her and I can tell she doesn't like me! I don't even like her! How could my mom or my dad or Lady Mito put up with someone like her? How do they expect me to make this all work?"

"Yes, it's a very monumental task," said the Hokage. "Never before in the history of Kuniumi has a hidden village come to rely upon the person who has made the world what it is today in combating if not corruption of the land then the nature of man himself, something that has attempted but failed to bear fruit since the time of the Sage of the Six Paths…perhaps even before then. Your mother was right when she said the darkness has been present before malevolence, for it is only the shinobi, those who endure, that can understand how far the rabbit hole goes…and how deeply one can fall into it. Yet it took her years to see past her hatred, let it go and dole forgiveness, for what was caused by the Five Great Nations she blamed entirely on Lord Velvet; indeed, you could even say she is also a scapegoat for the crimes she did not commit. The fact that the Lady Seres, a _kami_ whose powers were assimilated from being devoured, could do nothing to stop her was not lost on Kushina, and she too was implicit."

"So why even bother? How could they do that? I'm pretty sure no one forgives a mass murderer right off the bat!"

"No," said Sarutobi. "Even after all these years, the other nations have neither forgiven nor forgotten what we have done to them to ensure our existence…and neither have we; and yet, here we are: struggling and suffering through the darkness and the bloodshed." He massaged his knuckles on one hand, and then the other. "They forget, Naruto, what my predecessors have tried to achieve with Lord Velvet's assistance to curtail the rise of malevolence. They forget that _their_ predecessors agreed she should be in Konoha's custody, for it was their alliance with Uzushio in concordance with Lord Hashirama's bloodline that could fully subdue her."

"Seems like people tend to forget about a lot of things."

"Yes, but war is not one of them, and neither is Lord Velvet. The form which she took may have been twisted into caricature and her true body based off vague memory, but no one can forget what she did to them. To _us_ , Naruto. You would not believe some of the things she did to get her March as big as it did, how far she went to breach through the Valley of the End."

"Like what?"

"Naruto, it is much too soon to say. I cannot, for you have already jumped to conclusions and resent Lord Velvet."

"Who doesn't hate her? Everyone knows who she is! She's the reason why I bothered staying in class at all!"

Sarutobi's brows furrowed. He pursed his lips together and clasped his hands. "There must be reason and compromise; there does not have to be any trust and belief in the other in order for this bond to work. It was how your mother operated with the Lord, and she would have continued so if things had not gone down the way they did. I could tell you everything there is to know about Lord Velvet and the time between then and now, but as I have said, you have already made preconceptions based on what you have learned and, as a result, your judgment has been made. If you really want to, you could even forego my direct orders and dreamwalk with the Lady Seres to get your answers, so long as she is willing to depart them."

"Why would I want to? I know everything there is to know about Velvet."

"Just as much as people say you're the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox reincarnated?" said the Hokage, firmly.

Naruto sputtered. "Th-That's different, old man! They don't know what we know! They don't know I'm not the Fox, that I hold him in me for their own good! Velvet's not a jinchuuriki. She's a hellion and a warlord and a parasite! What else is there to know about her? She almost destroyed Konoha! Why should I trust her?"

"I don't expect you to, Naruto. As a matter of fact, I don't expect you to like her _at all_. All I ask is that you try to cooperate, or we may never return the world to what it was again." Sarutobi ground out, patiently.

"You mean hell on earth?" Naruto swallowed thickly at the look directed at him. It was dark, angry. It was the kind of look someone from the police or the Intelligence Division would give to a criminal who was not only being a pain in the ass but making light of the crime they committed. It was the look the interrogators had when enough was enough and rocked their world; and Sarutobi looked like he was ready to rock Naruto's. The dimples on his frown were severe and the veins on his hands were popping out. Naruto didn't like that look. He shrank back.

Sarutobi sighed—a long, slow breath that took all the tension with it. "Here's the deal, Naruto. Come closer, and pay attention. I will only say this once."

Naruto balked inwardly at the wording. It reminded him too much of Velvet before she charged at Mizuki, but he relented and scooted his chair up until his knees were bumping the desk. "I understand your frustration. I understand you don't like her. But you are a genin of Konoha. You are not just its jinchuuriki; you are her Keeper, and in order for this to function as professionally as possible, you're going to need answers…but not all at once. So here's what we're going to do: On top of the mission your parent-imprints and the Lady Seres have given you, I give you one as well. I am ordering you to _stay alive, at all costs_. Whether or not you want to climb through the ranks and still become Hokage is up to you. The most important thing is that you live and get stronger—strong enough to fight the most fearsome dragons and most powerful rogue ninjas, strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the Lesser and Greater Lords of Calamity, strong enough to make even Lord Velvet Crowe think twice about you; for if you can meet her blow for blow, then she will know better than to underestimate you.

"I will talk it over with Master Inoichi and several others in the know so that we may arm you with not just the weapons to combat hellions and malevolence but the knowledge as well. You want to know why we want you to work with her after everything she's done to the world? Very well! You will get them! But you need to work with your team, with Velvet, and if I should find you have learned in your travels and not anger the Lord of Lords because she disagrees on a matter, I will declassify whatever information that has been deemed too sensitive, too unbelievable, for the public to bear. I'll even sweeten the pot," he added, when Naruto made to speak. "Not only will we give you weapons and knowledge, I will also give you any information that has been decoded from Lady Mito and Master Inomaru's ciphers, so you can utilize them to your advantage. But think first before you use that, Naruto; use your head, for not many people are able to make the most out of it."

"And the dreamwalk? You said I could ignore your orders by doing that."

"You could. You _can_ , if you so desire…but I would not suggest dreamwalking to find all your answers. It is not like the Yamanaka clan jutsu, although since the end of the Spring they have learned from Inomaru's teachings and expanded their repertoire. In truth, however, the dreamwalk is very…troublesome, as the Nara would put it. You can speak with the Lady Seres and the Fox and your parent-imprints and even Velvet Crowe, if you want…but no more than that. If you want, I can have Master Inoichi show you how to better access it."

"Yeah. If I accept this." Naruto gave the old man a wary look. "You're bribing me, aren't you? You know I don't like this chick, so you have to throw everything and the kitchen sink that has her name on it to get me to do this. I bet you did the same thing to my mom."

Sarutobi smiled ruefully. "Call it for what it is, but don't think for a second I'll stop you from learning if you refuse. For this matter, I will always be there to lend my support for you. You'd be surprised at what some people don't want you to learn."

"And if I don't take this chance, I'll probably learn 'everything' I could learn from you…but at a much slower pace. Maybe I won't learn at all." Naruto thought it over. "How's the dreamwalk troublesome? I've done this a couple times with Kurama and didn't have any problems with it."

"That's because you've only used it to talk to those bound to you. Trust me on this, Naruto. Only go by what they say and follow their instruction if it should suit your needs. I promise you we will go more in-depth with it. Just take my word for it. Everything will make sense in due time." He put his fist up, knuckles forward. "Well? What do you say?"

Naruto stared at the pockmarked skin and gnarled stumps of bone underneath it. Then he made an exasperated sound and shook his head. "Fine. I'll do this. 'S not like I have a choice, anyway."

"There's always a choice, Naruto. You can always refuse. You can even walk away."

"I'm not stupid, old man. I know what'll happen if I do. Besides, what's the point in running away? I started all this, I might as well see where it takes me…even if I have to drag a hellion with me." He closed his hand into a fist and pressed it against Sarutobi's. The skin was warm.

"Now, Naruto, I really ought to be going," the Hokage said, once they had separated, "but there's one more thing I need to give you." He pulled open another drawer, reached in, and took out a steel plate fixed on a strip of dark blue cloth. The symbol of the Leaf (which always reminded Naruto of a snail sticking its head out of its shell) was engraved on it between two pairs of bolts.

Sarutobi placed it on the desk before him. "Although I wish I could welcome you into the Konoha Shinobi Organizational System under lighter, better circumstances, I believe you made the right call. However long it takes, we will make the best out of this situation."

"How? Didn't Velvet say there's nothing we can do about the daemonblight?"

"Where there's a will, there's a way. Once we find the answers, we will reach them. Then, and only then, with her help, we will cleanse the world of her corruption."

"You really think she's going to help, huh?" Naruto asked as he took the forehead protector. He stared down at it, ran a thumb through the grooves of the Leaf etched therein.

"I don't think, Naruto. I _know_ for a fact she is…and she will. There is no doubt in my mind she will not throw away this last chance. It would be in your best interests for you to see it for yourself, if you wish to be removed of all doubts." He raised his hands and flashed four seals in rapid succession. The walls glowed blue in intrinsic patterns very briefly, and then the light receded. There was a click, as though something was being unlocked. With startling clarity, Naruto could hear the chatter of birds outside the window, the ticking wall clock, and the thrum of electricity in the fluorescent lights overhead. "I will let you know about your training when I have made all my arrangements. If you won't hear it from your instructor, then I will send someone else to fill you in—"

That was the most Naruto got out of it. He assumed that last part was what the Hokage said and didn't make it up on the spot, because the door to the office was suddenly blown open and a small blur made a beeline right for the old man. It had a head full of dark brown hair and a long blue scarf trailing behind it.

It screeched in a high, boyish voice: "I AM NATURE'S RAGE! RAAAAAGH—!"

Then, another voice, older and shrill and full of righteous anger: "YOUNG MASTER, CEASE THIS FOOLISHNESS AT ONCE!"

So it did—with the kid tripping over the tail end of the scarf and kissing the floor with his face. He groaned piteously and picked his head up. Naruto blinked. Was that a helmet he was wearing? With an angry face button on it?

He certainly looked the part when he glanced around. "Ow…alright, who did that?!" He gasped. "It's a trap, isn't it? You set me up, didn't you, old man?!"

Sarutobi shrugged. "Not I. I was having an important chat with Naruto."

"Naruto…?" The kid gawked. The Hokage tipped his head Naruto's way, and Naruto saw the confusion on the kid's face. "It's you," he breathed, and then, outrageously, "The Troublemaker! You set me up!"

"You tripped over your own feet, you klutz!"

"I'm not a klutz, yo! Klutzes don't jump fifty feet in the air!"

Naruto flailed, face and neck flushed a bright hot red. "I-I did not jump!"

"Sure ya did!" said the kid, grinning viciously. "If I was a klutz, I wouldn't have scared you."

"You didn't scare me—"

"Did I scare ya, old timer?" the kid asked Sarutobi. "It should have! I coulda been the Lord o' Calamity comin' to et you up!"

_…'Et?'_ Naruto wondered dumbly.

"Then you are the smartest, most cunning Lord of Calamity I have ever seen," said Sarutobi, "for you have evaded all the chuunin and the jounin, the elite jounin, the ANBU, and my very own Platoon Guard to get this far. Now what will you do, now that you have found me?"

"It's simple! I'm gonna take that hat and proclaim myself Fifth Hokage! The Best Hokage! The Most Awesomest, Badass Hellion Hokage that's so powerful, so quick, I'd make even Velvet Crowe shake in her boots!"

_Oh, you sweet summer child,_ Naruto thought sardonically, and couldn't have rolled his eyes harder.

Sarutobi hummed thoughtfully. "That's a very bold statement to make, Konohamaru. Velvet Crowe was not only the first of Lords of Calamity; she was the Lord of Lords, a most wretched and conniving villain who was fearless and never backed down from a fight even with the odds stacked against her. You mean to tell me you'll do worse than her…just to steal my hat?" He made a show of lifting one end of it up and down. "This thing is very heavy, you know. You might fall over if you put it on. Is that what you want?"

The kid—Konohamaru—nodded vigorously. "Yeah, man! I want that hat! I'll do worse than—hey, wait a minute! Who said I'm gonna be worse than her? I'm not the one six feet in the ground like that dusty bag of bones!"

"Young master!" said the second voice, and a man dressed from the neck down in a tight-fitting black uniform came stumbling into the room. He snagged the threshold of the doorway with both hands, panting heavily. "Young master, are you alright? What in blazes were you thinking, taking off like that?"

"It was too quiet, Master Ebisu!" said Konohamaru. "So I figured I should give the old man a good scare! A good ninja's always gotta stay on their feet when it's too quiet, right?"

"Look who's talking," Naruto grumbled.

The kid whirled on him with the most imperious look on his face, chest swelling so much Naruto thought he'd keel over ass over kettle with how much air he was taking. "AND THIS ONE RIGHT HERE, MASTER," he continued in a loud, bombastic voice, "set on me a most devious trap! I could've defeated the Hokage if it wasn't for him!" He marched up to Naruto and jabbed a finger at his chest.

"Young master, there are no traps in here!" said Ebisu, and with his middle finger pushed his glasses up.

"Okay, seriously, you can't be this stupid," said Naruto, rising to his feet.

"Stupid is as stupid does! I didn't jump in the air, unlike you!"

"Once again, you didn't scare me! Second of all, you tripped over your own feet because your scarf's too long!" Naruto grabbed a hold of the tail and tugged at it. "Someone's gonna exploit that someday when you're on the field. Maybe you should try tying it 'round your waist sometime!"

"Maybe I don't wanna!"

"Idiot!"

"Klutz!"

"Shrimp!"

"B-Bookworm!" Konohamaru stammered, then, adding on to Naruto's bewildered look, "A-At least people eat shrimp! I'm very delectable!"

"Say that again, but this time more slowly."

"No, really, who'd wanna eat a worm?!"

"Maybe you would. You brought it up!"

"And you keep going at it! Maybe _you_ wanna eat a worm!"

"Do not!"

"Do, too!"

"Do not!"

Sarutobi rested his chin on one upturned palm and sighed, trying not to cover his face with it.

"You let him go, Naruto!" said Master Ebisu, who stepped in between them. "That's the revered Lord Third Hokage's grandson you're manhandling, not some random street urchin!"

Naruto paused, his grip on the scarf loosening. He twisted round to peer over at the Hokage (who seemed like he wanted to crawl under his desk but had some insane amount of dignity not to), then at Konohamaru (who had his fingernails digging into his wrist and whose eyes were like twin black beady balls of fury trying to burn holes in him), then at the Hokage again. "…Really?"

"Yes, really! Show some respect!"

"Yeah, come on! Show me some respect!" Konohamaru goaded.

"Okay! HERE!" said Naruto, and smashed his free hand over the kid's head. There was a loud, hollow bang that resounded off the walls.

Ebisu made a high, choked, chicken-like squawk of horror. The Hokage breathed in deep and let it out through his nostrils. He began rifling through another drawer and started putting a few items on top one by one: the calabash smoking pipe, a tin of tobacco, a pipe tool, a matchbox, an ashtray.

Konohamaru uttered a small gasp—so quiet as to be almost incoherent. Or perhaps that was him hitting the floor, first with his knees, and then falling forward on his face again so that the air rushed out of his stomach.

Naruto grunted and stood up. _Man, talk about annoying! To think I was like that his age!_ A glint of light caught his eye and made him look down. Right at his own reflection staring back at him in the forehead protector's plate. _Huh. I forgot about that._ He gave the kid a cursory glance. _Oh damn, I hope I didn't give him a concussion._ When he saw Konohamaru begin to stir, grunting and feebly patting the ground for purchase, Naruto shrugged. _Eh, he'll be fine. Four-eyes over there will take care of it._

"H-How…How dare you!" Ebisu began, balling his fists.

"Yeah, I did," Naruto reiterated, "and I don't care if he's the old man's grandson, either. You don't just demand respect like you're entitled for it. That's how you get your ass kicked! Now excuse me, you're blocking the entrance. I've got places I gotta be." He hauled up his rucksack from one strap, renewed his hold on the protector, and marched for the door. "I'll see you around, Lord Hokage," he said, raising a hand in parting. Then he left, not bothering to see the poleaxed expression Ebisu was suddenly wearing.

One headache was enough as it is.

-

"I can't believe he did that!" Ebisu exclaimed, once he was certain Naruto was out of earshot. "You would think Naruto, with his sudden bout of infinite wisdom, would know better than to harm your grandson!"

"I am surprised Konohamaru managed to get a single ambush in at all today, given how busy it's been," Sarutobi said, puffing on his pipe. "Persistent as ever, the little bugger."

"Are you okay, young master?" the chuunin asked, helping Konohamaru stand on his feet. "Do you ache? Allow me to heal you—"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, just leggo!" The boy waved him off. He huffed and puffed and turned in circles. "Where's he going?" he asked Master Ebisu after a couple rotations.

"Where is he…? Young master, why should it concern you? You're not going to learn anything if you hang around that ruffian!" Ebisu pushed up his glasses and waved a dismissive hand. "It will be through me you will learn the fastest way to inheriting the title of Lord Hokage…and most certainly not as a hellion!"

"I was just jokin' around, yo! I know hellions are no-good! But you never know; there might be a Lord of Calamity out there who's gonna want to be Hokage, and the old geezer here has to be ready for when that happens!"

"Be that as it may, there are no hellions in Konoha. Even if there were, we'd do what for to them as quick as you can blink! Hellions have no place in life, neither here on the Continent, in the Occident, or anywhere else in the world. If we can stop the Lord of Calamity, the same can be done to hellions. They must be eliminated, no matter what!"

"Right, right!" said Konohamaru. "That's the first thing I'm gonna do as Fifth Hokage. I'm gonna stop all the bad guys!"

"Indeed! But that is a far ways off, and where there are hellions to be dealt with there is also malevolence and daemonblight." Master Ebisu nodded knowingly, smiling proudly. "Ah! It does me good to see you be so eager to learn! If only you could show this much verve towards the rest of your studies!"

Konohamaru gasped. "Maybe the bookworm knows…yeah!" He snapped his hands into fists. "I'm gonna go ask the bookworm! HEY, BOOKWORM! WHERE ARE YOU?" He spun briskly on his heel, stumbled, picked himself up before he could fall and broke into a run out the door.

"Yes, yes, you do that. Go ask the bookwor—What? No!" Master Ebisu jumped. "Don't do that, young master!" He fled through the entrance, his voice trailing—and quickly fading—behind him: "Young master, come back here! Do not believe the lies he tells you! YOUNG MASTER—"

Sarutobi watched this all unfold with indifference, and when they were gone he took the pipe out of his mouth to release a long, smoke-filled sigh.

It saddened him to see how much ignorance there was to be found in not just the public but in the military and the Academy. Opinions on hellions had seen very little positive progression after the Spring, even with all the precautions his predecessors and their Councils had taken to assure they would not be discovered and either run out of town or lynched on the spot. It had to have been a miracle to see the reports come in two years after the Uchiha Massacre documenting a drop in casualties via intentional homicide, only just reaching a historic low not seen since the interwar period of 968-988.

He bit the inside of his cheek. Hellion homicides were messy and the cleanup was grim, but often he heard some of the Point Zero Guard take bets whenever one of their own brethren, greater or lesser of import, worked up the nerve and escaped, or had been spotted by a passer-by or ninja in their hurry and was chased. Other ANBU were not so embittered to give in and merely hoped that they lay low and endured beyond the wall—the Other Side, as they had come to call the world outside the Village, for there was no other place to call home.

For many, however, only the ill miasma of the slumbering Lord of Calamity would say it was their only home.

Sarutobi made it imperative, years after putting on the hat, to ensure he would check in on the whereabouts of the refugees far and in between. Homura and Koharu, his old teammates, formed this current Council, and even back then they were suspicious of Velvet Crowe and those ninja who had outed themselves to be hellions. They still did so, long after Lord Tobirama sacrificed himself to the wrath of the Kinkaku Force in the First World War, believing the Lord of Calamity an unwanted magnet of misfortune that brought about his end. They adhered to his decisions nonetheless, and informed him of any results that turned up in their search. Whatever had been brought to him was classified, copied, and hidden away somewhere only he and those he could trust could access.

The originals were always burned. Danzou had ceased being part of the Council…but he had never left Konoha or the Land of Fire. He kept his head low, eye forward and mouth shut; but his ears were open, let the others do the talking for him. Danzo was, if nothing else, an attentive man, and what he heard and saw he remembered.

He put the pipe to his lips again. The lucky few hellions that threw off their pursuers found sanctuary within the borders, and Sarutobi swore an oath to not reveal their location. Most of them, however…he always hoped they went north, never west or south or east. Although the world itself was infected, the Land of Water did not suffer as heavily as the mainland, but it was not a kind place for someone seeking to remove himself from extreme persecution. Not even the Land of Earth was safe, for though it had weathered most of the Dread March's assaults it had garnered a reputation for making a sport out of hunting hellions desperate to illegally cross the borders. The worst of these, Sarutobi thought, had to be Wind and Thunder the Country of Rain Village. Wind had been all but decimated, Roland being wiped off the map and Sunagakure nearly crumbling with it had it not been for a group of Knights of Gelel that had been separated from their platoon when the Isthmus shattered. Their justice knew no mercy, for anyone who had been revealed to be a hellion or showed even the slightest sign of being a hellion (right or wrong) was tortured for as long as possible only to be summarily executed and left for the carrion birds to pick; not even Kazekage candidates were safe, and it was these methods that produced the second largest Anti-Malevolence Department next to Konoha in Kuniumi in spite of the nation's rise as the weakest of the Five Great Nations. Thunder was no different, but they did not have a centralized subdivision to counter the blight so instead dealt with hellions in a more quiet manner than their western neighbors.

If there was one thing worse than being caught alive and tortured, it had to be erasure of one's existence, utterly and completely. 'Condemnation of memory' was the phrase, allegedly transliterated from a variety of languages in Al-Effydd. In a way, it was much harsher than the punishments doled out to rogue ninjas, but the process in which it was carried was extreme. To be condemned meant to die in all ways possible. It would mean not just a loss in property, but anything and everything associated with the person dishonored; and if that meant the erasure of those who did not accept it, then it would just mean more work to fix the status quo.

North, then, would be the safest route…so long as they avoided Takigakure's borders and the mountain passes in Bone Country, where it is said all dragons and drakes, wyrms and wyverns roosted. Nothing good came out of that land once one went past the shanty towns on the border, or so Sarutobi heard the stories go. He had thought he heard of one such group of hellions that pressed that way, hoping to sail across the sea, and there was rumor they had succeeded, though communications across that way was scarce if nonexistent. For all anyone knew, they were dead and forgotten.

He let go of the pipe and blew a smoky stream. It should not have to surprise him that the hatred toward hellions was passed down from parent to child. In her madness, Velvet had done many things to the civilian population that would've made Naruto loathe her all the more and question the sanity of his spiritual tenants; people had every right to be angry, and they were right to be concerned of the matter on daemonblight (misguided and exaggerated those warnings had become). But to condemn every hellion for her crimes? He could only imagine the furor that would erupt if the public ever learned how many hellions were serving in the Shinobi Organizational System.

He wondered how long it would take for people to cross-reference all the descriptions of Velvet Crowe over the years (from gossip or by word of mouth via parentage) and put the pieces together before they realized that the woman in the tattered jacket that showed more skin than what should be deemed appropriate was definitely not what they had seen illustrated in history books. And how fast they'd react when they would begin to see her orbiting around Naruto. Jinchuuriki he may be, but Naruto was only a genin and not yet grown into the caliber of his parents. It was by luck and dint he had ANBU watching him throughout most of his childhood. If worse came to worse, and the public got bold or ignorant ninja decided to test their luck, Sarutobi would have to pull all stops to ensure the boy's safety until he was capable of defending himself.

The Hokage looked out the window, suddenly depressed. The orphanage was the best option he could afford to take care of Naruto, despite the cold looks, grumbling backtalk, and roughhousing he had to put up with (his caretakers never tried to beat him for his misbehavior, not with the ANBU in their peripheral, and so were merely made to stew in their discomfort). He could have placed him somewhere with one of the clans—perhaps even the Yamanaka, where he would make friends with Ino and learn from Inoichi the true account of the end of the Spring and the heritage its heirs were tasked with. Yet for all the might these clans wielded, it would give them too much power. The Nine-Tailed Fox was one thing; to have not just a tailed beast but the Lord of Calamity waiting to be called upon when the time was right ( _And when,_ Sarutobi pondered curiously, not for the first time in his life, _is it ever right?_ ) would do more harm than good and leave Naruto vulnerable to lingering resentments some clansmen were sure to harbor. He had even considered placing him in the custody of the Uchiha, but they had always been divided on the matter of Lord Hashirama sparing her, and there was no telling what would happen to Naruto were he put under a negative influence. Sarutobi would never forget the day when Mikoto came to him long before the Massacre, sullen and forlorn, and told him that she could not accept the boy, for they had discussed it in length and made a vote on it. It had been close, but those in favor for adopting him had been outnumbered by a sliver. "Even if some forgive, many will never forget," she had said, and those words had never rung more true than they did now.

There had been one other option he had meant to turn to when all else failed. He saw it as a chance of redemption, an offer he was certain could not be refused. Everyone would call him crazy for giving Velvet Crowe and the Lady Seres a second chance where they deserved none; Sarutobi liked to think he held within his hand a single ray of hope, and Velvet need only take it….

_But life finds a way. By the Sage, it always does. Some things just aren't meant to last._

His mind was beginning to wander, beginning to form the illusions of what could have been, what should have been but had been denied by him and him alone. They would have progressed further, would have gotten worse, were it not for the telltale flicker of chakra that suddenly flared beside him, waiting in the shadows. Sarutobi lowered the pipe, grateful for the distraction. "Kuroguma," he acknowledged. "How fares Lord Velvet?"

"She is…fine," said the man in the black mask.

"Hm? Just fine?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary, sir. It is as you said: she went abroad to hunt, but remained within the premises of the Village. She is content. Fukurou is keeping an eye on her."

Sarutobi nodded. "Good. And she has not caused any trouble?"

There seemed to be a pause, as if he were thinking back on it, but Kuroguma made a soft sound and shook his head. "No, sir. Lord Velvet has kept her hands to herself. Last I checked, she sat with the wolves."

"The wolves, eh? How many were there?"

"Just two, sir. They are keeping her company."

Just two. It had always been like that—just two, never the three she became associated with, despite the fact she had never been seen with all three out at once. Just those two: large wolf-shaped constructs that looked like they had been formed from a clone jutsu that changed dependent on Velvet's malevolence levels. He recalled seeing them in action, once upon a time. Ghostly were they in appearance, and still hulking machines of muscle, but he had heard plenty of tales of them being stronger, faster, and armored in plates of dragon scales, hence their nickname. He couldn't help but think, with the bloodbinding active and now stabilized between the Lord and the proper Uzumaki host the wolves would adopt a more grounded facade.

"Always remember, Kuroguma: When the third is seen, then we will have cause for concern…but I would not jump to conclusions right away. The Lord does not like bringing her out when there are others around."

"I will, sir."

"There's something I need you to do before you go." Sarutobi twisted round behind him, snagged an empty scroll, and unfurled it across the desk. He took up a pen from a cup holder, removed the cap, and started to write. Kuroguma waited patiently, and when the Hokage was done he rolled the scroll shut, twisted the dowel locks shut, and handed it to him. "Take this to Natori at the Aviary. He will have Kikkyou send it to Lord Velvet. This scroll will inform her of the adjustments that will be made to the team placements the jounin captains will be notified of in the meeting. There are a couple other minor notes I have listed she should be made aware of, but that is the most important of all. Expect her to make an appearance here by nightfall."

"As you wish, milord," said Kuroguma, but he did not leave right away. He did not pocket the scroll immediately; instead he seemed to be holding it not quite close to him but not at a distance as to offend him. Sarutobi expected him to place it back on the desk and refuse. He did not, and directed the bear-shaped mask at him. "Do you really think they will agree to this?"

"They must, even if they do not. It has to be done this way to earn the best results and make the most out of them. If we do not, I fear we may never be able to decode the ciphers Lady Mito and Minder Inomaru left behind."

"Indeed, sir. I apologize if I spoke out of turn." Sarutobi waved a hand at him, foregoing the perceived insult. "I will deliver this to Mister Natori right away."

"Thank you. Also, please let Fukurou update me if anything should happen with Lord Velvet, although I do not believe it will come to that."

"Yes, Lord Hokage." Finally, Kuroguma secreted the scroll away in a pouch and stepped back into the shadows. His chakra disappeared with him.

Sarutobi peered at the pipe's bowl. It was empty. He replaced it and the rest of the essentials back where they belonged, stood up, and pushed his chair in. He went out the door, where another ANBU stood by the threshold. He told him to let the others know he was on his way and would not keep them waiting any longer. The ANBU nodded and flickered away.

The time had come to set in motion the wheel of fate once more. Where it would stop, where it would land, not even the Professor could say for certain.


End file.
